The Carbon Containment Lab recently co-hosted a side event at the seventeenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention (BC COP-17) on May 5, 2025. This side event was convened in response to the growing recognition that aligning the Basel Convention and the Montreal Protocol is critical to overcoming regulatory bottlenecks and enabling safe and effective Lifecycle Refrigerant Management at scale. By bringing together policymakers, technical experts, private sector leaders, and civil society; the session aimed to build a shared understanding of the regulatory landscape, discuss practical case studies of transboundary movement challenges, and identify opportunities for legal, procedural, and institutional coordination.
The panelists of the side event included:
David Ogden, Deputy Executive Secretary of the Basel-Rotterdam-Stockholm Conventions, gave the opening remarks for the event. Mr. Ogden emphasized the importance of HFC phasedowns under the Montreal Protocol and the role the Basel Convention plays in LRM, and the ESM of used and waste refrigerators, cooling, and heating equipment.
Anastasia O’Rourke, Senior Managing Director at the CC Lab, explained why these cooling gases are warming the planet and the role of LRM as an effective mitigation strategy that can address this problem.
Gabe Plotkin, Founder and Strategic Advisor of Tradewater. He shared some case studies of how the Basel Convention impacts the transboundary movement of these gases, based on his company’s experiences in collecting, transporting, and destroying gases around the world.
Dana Lapesová, Director of Basel Convention Regional Centre Slovakia and co-chair of PACEII, spoke about the mission and goals of Partnership for Action on Challenges relating to E-waste (PACEII).
Hannah Wooldridge, Senior Advisor of the UK Environment Agency and co-chair of the PACEII, introduced the new guidance document on environmentally sound repair and refurbishment of used refrigerators, cooling and heating equipment, and ESM of their waste products.
Maas Goote, Founder of Caraway Strategies, discussed six possible solutions to the transboundary movement challenges in support of both climate and environmental protection.
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