Ten years after adopting the Kigali Amendment, countries meeting in Kigali face a test about whether they can keep the finance commitments they made. Negotiations to replenish the Montreal Protocol’s Multilateral Fund must deliver sufficient resources to sustain implementation. Financial pressures are real, but allowing them to undermine an agreement capable of preventing up to 0.5°C of warming by 2100 would be a profound failure of judgement. The amendment targets hydrofluorocarbons, powerful greenhouse gases widely used in refrigeration and air conditioning. Its importance grows as demand for cooling increases. Equipment installed today will shape emissions and energy consumption for years. Delaying the transition risks locking countries into technologies that become expensive to replace. Technical assessments put developing countries’ funding requirements for 2027–2029 at between $1.230 billion and $1.692 billion. Negotiators should treat these estimates as evidence of implementation needs. Funding decisions must reflect what countries require to meet their obligations. Predictability matters as much as the amount. Governments and businesses need confidence to plan investments, update equipment and train workers. Uncertain financing disrupts preparation and weakens compliance. Countries cannot build credible implementation programmes around resources that arrive late or remain trapped in repeated negotiations. But money alone will not deliver the transition. Countries must enforce licensing systems, quotas and safety standards, strengthen reporting and equip technicians to handle alternative refrigerants. Recovering and properly managing used gases must become routine practice. The benefits extend beyond emissions reductions. Reliable, efficient cooling can preserve food, reduce farmers’ losses and strengthen cold chains. Developing countries should receive support to expand access to these essential services while adopting cleaner technologies. This requires cooperation between funders and recipient countries. Contributors must provide adequate, timely resources. Recipient governments must ensure transparent spending, effective enforcement and measurable results at every implementation stage. Neither side can fulfil the agreement alone. The Kigali+10 Declaration can reaffirm political commitment, but its credibility will depend on what follows: funding approved, technicians trained, regulations enforced and emissions avoided. Public reporting should make those results visible and enable countries to identify and address gaps before they derail progress. The world already has an agreed framework for tackling these powerful pollutants. Countries must protect its momentum and strengthen implementation. Kigali should mark renewed determination to deliver. A decade of progress must become the foundation for greater ambition, backed by the resources to make it possible.
