China responsible for surge in ozone-depleting emissions – Study
http://www.hrlnews.com/2019/05/china-responsible-for-surge-in-ozone.html
China is to blame for much of the increase in illegal ozone-depleting
substances (ODS) since 2013, according to a study published by the
journal Nature on Thursday, with domestic companies accused of violating
a global production ban.
About 40-60 per cent of the global rise in the prohibited
ozone-destroying refrigerant trichlorofluoromethane (CFC-11) since 2013
could be attributed to the industrial provinces of Shandong and Hebei in
northern China, researchers from Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific
and Industrial Research Organisation and Britain’s University of Bristol
said.
After
studying atmospheric data from South Korea and Japan, they estimated
CFC-11 emissions from eastern mainland China during the 2014-2017 period
were around 7 million kilograms per year higher than over 2008-2012.
The Ministry of Ecology and Environment did not respond immediately
to a request for comment on Thursday. CFC-11, once used in refrigerators
and air conditioners, is one of the chemicals banned under the Montreal
Protocol, a treaty to protect the earth’s ozone layer by phasing out
all global CFC production by 2010. CFC-11 in the atmosphere declined
substantially until 2012 but has since rebounded.
China ratified the treaty in 1991 and it said last year it has
already eliminated as much as 280,000 tonnes of annual ODS production
capacity and was speeding up efforts to phase out other ozone-damaging
chemicals.
But a report last year by the London-based Environmental
Investigation Agency (EIA) claimed dozens of Chinese companies were
still using the banned CFC-11 in the production of polyurethane foam.
“Because it’s very effective at what it does, however, there have
been rogue users of old supplies and rogue producers who flout
international agreements that their governments have signed up to,” said
Ian Rae at the School of Chemistry at the University of Melbourne who
was a technical advisor to the Montreal Protocol.
China launched a special inspection campaign into 3,000 foam
manufacturers across the country last year and promised to punish any
violations of the Montreal treaty. It said in March that it had shut
down two manufacturing spots that produced CFC-11 as part of the
crackdown.