Sir, - At a recent international conference, the Environment Minister, Noel Dempsey, declared that climate change would affect us all and that real action was now required to reduce the problem. What he failed to state was that this country is not playing its part in tackling global warming despite a binding EU regulation put in place to counteract the depletion of the ozone layer.
The regulation (2037/2000) deals with CFCs and implements EU commitments agreed by the parties to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, an international treaty. The regulation came into effect in October 2000 and affects users, suppliers, maintenance engineers and those involved in the disposal of ozone-depleting substances.
Since last January CFCs should have been recovered during the servicing and maintenance of refrigerating equipment used in commercial or industrial applications. This ought to have been overseen and policed by the Department of the Environment. Furthermore, fixed refrigeration units should be checked annually for leakage.
From January 2002 all domestic fridges that are being discarded will have to have CFCs removed. No longer can fridges be sent to landfill. CFCs in fridge foam will be classified as hazardous waste and must be destroyed by an environmentally acceptable technology. This has major implications for county councils, the EPA, recycling centres and landfill sites. However, no strategy has been developed to implement this regulation and knowledge about it within the agencies appears minimal.
By contrast, plans are in place in the UK to build centres for the degassing of old fridges and the destruction of CFCs. Three centres are in preparation at a cost of £5 million each. Prior to the commissioning of these centres, large storage areas are planned to hold unwanted fridges.
With less than six weeks to go before the introduction of restrictions on the dumping of domestic fridges, no clear policies or procedures are in place in this country and trade controls are non-existent. Frankly it is a mess. What started off as a great idea to save the ozone layer will, thanks to government inaction, lead to old fridges being dumped on every road and ditch in the country.
If every industrialised country treats the Montreal Protocol the way we do, I am afraid that Irish Ministers for the Environment will be attending international conferences on climate change for centuries to come. - Yours, etc.,
Cllr Michael O'Dowd, Balgathern, Drogheda, Co Louth.