COUNTRIES NEED to take “immediate action” to prevent enormous banks of chemicals being released into the atmosphere, with damage equivalent to 20 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2), according to a report published today.
Production of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) – used in fridges and air-conditioning equipment – were phased out under the 1987 Montreal Protocol after being linked to a huge hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica.
These ozone-depleting substances (ODS) not only cause damage to stratospheric ozone, which is essential to protect life on Earth from excessive solar radiation, but are also powerful greenhouse gases – up to 11,000 times greater than CO2, according to the report.
By 2015, according to projections by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the equivalent of six billion tons of CO2 could be emitted as CFC and HCFC refrigerants leak from commercial, residential and mobile refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment.
This would amount to nearly three times the annual output of all greenhouse gases in the US, according to The Missing 'Wedge' from the Montreal Protocol: An Overlooked Opportunity for Near-Term Carbon Reductions, by Jeff Cohen, Alex Rau and Kristian Bruning.
The report was produced by San Francisco-based EOS Climate, co-founded by Mr Cohen, a former manager at the US Environmental Protection Agency.
The company offers “high-quality carbon offsets” through the guaranteed destruction of ODS “ticking bombs”.
The report is being released to coincide with the 21st meeting of the 192 UN member states that signed and ratified the Montreal Protocol in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Port Ghalib, and the UN climate talks in Barcelona, preparing for next month’s Copenhagen conference.
“Large quantities of CFCs, HCFCs and halons, produced prior to their phase-out deadlines under the Montreal Protocol, remain in use or storage in older equipment, building and appliance insulation, and other stockpiles and products around the world,” the authors say.
“Neither the Montreal nor Kyoto protocols control emissions of these remaining ODS banks and, given their rate of release to the atmosphere, immediate action is needed.”
It said ODS banks could be extracted, collected, and destroyed using technologies and infrastructure that were currently available in industrialised countries at a price ranging from €1.80 to €7.40 per kg.
Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN environment programme, hailed the the protocol’s success in phasing out over 97 per cent of substances that damage the ozone layer, saying this had also “contributed to sparing the planet a significant level of global warming”.