And The Culprit Is....
"It wasn't entirely a surprise. That's more than double the emissions we were expecting from China at the time [of the signing of the global agreement on CFC reduction]."
"Was this enough to account for a substantial fraction of the global emissions rise that we saw? What we've found in this study is that, yes, it is globally significant."
"[CFC-11 is about] 5,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide at warming the climate."
Matthew Rigby, lead author, study, University of Bristol
"The government [of China] has followed up on the companies we identified in 2018."
"It has undertaken a nationwide enforcement effort, including raising the penalties for using CFC-11, and has shut down at least two CFC-11 production sites."
Clare Petty, Environmental Investigation Agency
 |
| Much of the CFC-11 gas has been used in home insulation Getty Images |
According to a United Nations report released in 2018, the huge ozone hole that had formed above Antarctica could be completely closed by mid-century, thanks to the progress of the Montreal Protocol. However, if increased emissions from eastern China hadn't been stopped, that process would have been delayed by "potentially decades". The back story of which is that unknown to anyone a mystery had developed whereby emissions of CFC had been detected at a time when none should have been released to the environment.
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) is a chemical that was used profusely and universally as a coolant in refrigerators and air conditioners along with other similar uses, such as form insulation, that was eventually found to be having a profound effect on the ozone layer that protects Earth from the sun's radiation. The Montreal Protocol saw the nations of the world come together in the 1980s to sign on to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.
This treaty was a first of its kind, universally adopted once it was fully understood the deleterious effect CFCs were having on the Earth's protective ozone layer. Signed by 197 nations, the protocol effected a significant reduction in CFCs harming the atmosphere and a slow healing of the damaged ozone layer began to take effect. Last year however, scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association found global emissions of Trichlorofluoremethane (CFC-11) was on the increase, since 2013.
Some country was obviously violating the Montreal Protocol. The violator was traced to somewhere in East Asia. A study published on Wednesday in Nature saw scientists from the University of Bristol, Kyungpook National University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology releasing the information that between 40 and 60 percent of total global CFC-11 emissions had emanated form eastern China.
An international network of measurement devices enables the scientists to identify and track gases in the atmosphere, with the team behind the study discovering data from the devices in Korea and Japan spiking since 2013. Analyzing weather and wind patterns to determine the origin of the increase in gas led to eastern mainland China, around Shandong province. Manufacturers there admitted they continued to use the banned product since it was of better quality and less expensive than alternatives.
Some factories produced the gas in secret, and other manufacturers claimed a blind eye was turned to their activities by local governments. An increase of about 7,000 tons annually in the area was emitted since 2013, slowing down the rate of ozone holes being repaired. The news was obviously of concern to the Chinese administration in Beijing because of the global embarrassment it caused, leading them to begin a crackdown on the plants.
Arrests and closure of two illicit facilities producing CPC-11 ensued.
 |
Labels: CFCs, China, Earth, Ozone
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, May 25, 2019
<< Home