Healing Earth Ozone Holes Could Help Temperatures

Healing Earth Ozone Holes Could Help Temperatures



2007 September -   Refrigerating and air 
conditioning today employ hydrochlorofluorocarbons, HCFCs - chemicals that 
by international agreement have replaced other chemicals known to damage 
the Earth's ozone layer. But now HCFCs have fallen out of favor because 
they too deplete the ozone layer and also act as greenhouse gases 
contributing to global warming. 
Today in Montreal, representatives of 191 governments opened a four day 
conference at which they will try to speed up the phaseout of both 
production and consumption of HCFCs. They are seeking solutions that can 
both protect the ozone layer and help to stabilize the climate. 

The governments are Parties to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that 
Deplete the Ozone Layer, which on Sunday marked its 20th anniversary with 
a seminar entitled “Celebrating 20 Years of Progress.” 
Hosted by Environment Canada and the UN Environment Programme, UNEP, which 
is responsible for the Montreal Protocol, the seminar was held at the 
Palais de Congrès in Montreal, Canada, in advance of the conference 
negotiations. 
Participants from governments, international organizations, business and 
NGOs took part in the keynote presentations and panel discussions on the 
history, development and implementation of the Montreal Protocol, ozone 
science, and links with other environmental issues such as climate change
The chemicals originally phased out by the Montreal Protocol are 
ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons, CFCs, and the protocol is considered 
a great success because industrialized countries have met their deadlines 
for CFC phaseout. 
Developing countries continue to transition away from CFCs as their 
markets for refrigeration and air conditioning grow, and at the conference 
they will be seeking increased financial assistance to meet the 
requirements of the Montreal Protocol. 
Achim Steiner, UN undersecretary general and UNEP executive director, said 
the Montreal Protocol is "without doubt one of the most successful 
multilateral treaties ever." 

"The phase out of CFCs has not only put the ozone layer on the road to 
recovery, new research, published in March this year by Dutch and American 
scientists, also shows that the CFC phaseout has assisted in combating 
climate change. But," said Steiner, "the treaty's success story is far 
from over with new and wide ranging chapters still to be written." 
"If governments adopt accelerated action on HCFCs," he said, "we can look 
forward to not only a faster recovery of the ozone layer, but a further 
important contribution to the climate change challenge." 
Under the Montreal Protocol, use of HCFCs is scheduled to end in developed 
countries by 2030 and in developing countries by 2040. 
But scientists and governments are studying options for bringing forward 
the final phase-out by approximately 10 years, prompted by research 
indicating that acceleration could deliver cumulative emission reductions 
of 18 to 25 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide. 
Annually, these reductions could equal over 3.5 percent of all the world's 
current greenhouse emissions. 
By comparison, the Kyoto Protocol aims to reduce the emissions of most 
industrialized countries an average of 5.2 percent from 1990 levels by 
2012. 
At the 20th anniversary event, the man who shared the 1995 Nobel Prize in 
Chemistry for his work on the fate of chlorofluorocarbons in the 
atmosphere said the control of ozone depleting chemicals has already 
helped to limit global warming.

Nobel Laureate Professor Mario Molina, now with the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, told the seminar that "more has been achieved in 
terms of greenhouse gas emission reductions under the Montreal Protocol 
than under the Kyoto Protocol." 
Over its 20 year history, the Montreal Protocol is considered to have 
achieved success in controlling the ozone-depleting substances that have 
eroded holes in the Earth's stratospheric ozone layer - first over 
Antarctic, and more recently over the Arctic as well. 
Molina said, "The Protocol established a crucial precedent by showing that 
global environmental problems could be solved if there were global 
cooperation among governments, industry, the scientific community and 
environmental organizations." 
Canada's Environment Minister John Baird said, "The original Montreal 
Protocol stands as a model of the tremendous results that can be achieved 
when the international community works together to tackle environmental 
problems." 
"As the proud host country of this meeting, Canada believes that more can 
be done, and so we support an accelerated phaseout of HCFCs," said Baird. 
"We will work with the countries who have signed the protocol to help make 
this happen, and we will be pushing the international community to build 
on the success story that began here 20 years ago." 
Nine countries, both developed and developing, have submitted six 
different proposals on the accelerated phaseout of HCFCs for consideraton 
at the conference.. 
The final benefits of an accelerated freeze and phaseout of HCFCs may 
prove to be even higher than the 18 to 25 billion metric tons, according 
to a new report from the Montreal Protocol's Technology and Economic 
Assessment Panel that is designed to inform this week's negotiations. 
Close to 38 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide might be avoided 
annually if the acceleration is accompanied by the recovery and 
destruction of old equipment and insulating foam and improvements in 
energy efficiency, says the panel. 
For example, a faster switch to alternatives to HCFCs may stimulate 
technological innovation, including a more rapid introduction of energy 
efficient equipment that in turn could result in greater greenhouse gas 
emissions reductions. 
Under some of the accelerated phase-out scenarios, ozone levels could 
return to healthy pre-1980 levels a few years earlier than current 
scientific predictions.

      Arctic ozone hole, September 2006 (Image courtesy NASA) 
Benefits would include a reduction in skin cancer, cataracts, and harm to 
the human immune system alongside reduced damage to agricultural and 
natural ecosystems. 
The most recent study by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration, NASA, in 2006 predicted that the ozone hole over the South 
Pole would begin shrinking significantly by 2018 and the full return of 
the protective ozone layer would be complete in about 60 years. 
"The goal now is to ensure that CFCs and other emissions continue to fall 
to below the levels that produce an ozone hole," said Anne Douglass, the 
deputy project scientist for NASA's Aura satellite, which monitors the 
chemical make-up of the atmosphere. "This won't happen until about 2070." 
The company that led the switch from CFCs to HCFCs now supports the 
replacement of HCFCs as well because the ozone layer, human and ecosystem 
health will benefit, and also because the new developments will be good 
for business. 
DuPont commercialized the first of its non-ozone-depleting 
hydroclorofluorocarbons, HFCs, Suva® refrigerants, in January 1991. Since 
then, the company has launched 19 alternatives and has more than 375 
patents. "These alternatives are environmentally acceptable and energy 
efficient," the company claims. 
However, the Natural Refrigerants Transition Board, based in Australia, 
takes issue with that assertion. Board spokesman Brent Hoare says, "HFCs 
can in no way be said to be 'environmentally acceptable' as these are 
powerful greenhouse gases regulated by the Kyoto Protocol, and are being 
phased out in mobile air conditioning systems in Europe and banned in many 
other applications." 
"The only genuinely environmentally acceptable and long term refrigerant 
options are the natural refrigerants, ammonia, carbon dioxide and 
hydrocarbons, but companies such as DuPont actively campaign against the 
use of these gases in order to defend their commercial interests," says 
Hoare. 
"The Montreal Protocol has been responsible for a significant improvement 
in the ozone layer, and because CFCs also were very potent greenhouse 
gases, their phaseout provided the added benefit of reducing greenhouse 
gas emissions," said Linda Fisher, DuPont vice president and chief 
sustainability officer. 
"We have learned many valuable lessons from the structure and 
implementation of the Montreal Protocol that could be applied as we 
develop legislation to curb greenhouse gases," Fisher said. 
"DuPont has called for U.S. and global action to reduce greenhouse gases 
as a founding member of USCAP, and we continue to take a strong company 
position on the need for a global regulatory program," said Fisher. The 
United States Climate Action Partnership, USCAP, is a group of large 
corporations and conservation organizations encouraging the federal 
government to enact legislation for the reduction of greenhouse gases. 
"We believe that more needs to be done to protect our ozone layer as well 
as our climate," Fisher said. "Additional actions need to be taken 
globally by governments and industry to rapidly phase out HCFCs." 
The Montreal Protocol conference will close on Friday, just two days 
before a Heads of State event on climate change being hosted by the UN 
Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon at UN Headquarters in New York. 
This event is aimed at building consensus at the highest level on the need 
for climate action and a global emissions reduction agreement to take 
effect when the Kyoto Protocol expires in five years time. 
Steiner of UNEP suggests that agreement in Montreal on an accelerated 
freeze and phaseout of HCFCs might offer governments "quick wins" in 
addressing climate change and help to build confidence that a new 
international regime on greenhouse gas emissions can be agreed before the 
Kyoto Protocol expires. 

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