https://nationalpost.com/news/world/scientists-discover-china-has-been-secretly-emitting-banned-ozone-depleting-gas
[links and image in online article]
Scientists discover China has been secretly emitting banned
ozone-depleting gas
Scientists found that between 40 and 60 per cent of the total global
CFC-11 emissions originated from eastern China
Jacob Dubé
May 22, 2019
A chemical banned around the globe for the last 30 years has made an
unfortunate resurgence. And all signs, in a new study, point to China as
the culprit.
In the 1980s, countries came together to sign The Montreal Protocol on
Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, a landmark treaty designed to
halt and reduce the production of chlorofluorocarbons (CFC), chemicals
used in fridges and foams that had the side effect of tearing through
the Earth’s ozone layer.
The Montreal Protocol has been signed by 197 countries around the world,
including Canada, the U.S., and China. As the ozone layer in our upper
atmosphere slowly depleted — letting in an increasing amount of the
sun’s ultraviolet rays — the protocol contributed to a significant
reduction in harmful CFCs, which then allowed for a slow healing of the
damaged ozone layer.
That is until last year, when scientists from the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Association found that global emissions of
Trichlorofluoromethane (CFC-11) have actually been increasing since 2013.
The increase implied that someone was secretly violating the Montreal
Protocol. But the limitations of measuring devices meant the location of
the polluter could only be traced to somewhere in east Asia.
Now, in a new study published in Nature on May 22, scientists from the
University of Bristol, Kyungpook National University, and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that between 40 and 60 per
cent of total global CFC-11 emissions originate from eastern China.
With the help of an international network of measurement devices
designed to identify and track gases in the atmosphere, the team behind
the study found that data from their devices in Korea and Japan has
spiked since 2013. After analyzing weather and wind patterns to
determine the origin of the gas increase, it led them to eastern
mainland China, around the Shandong province.
“It wasn’t entirely a surprise,” said Matthew Rigby, lead author of the
study and Reader in Atmospheric Chemistry in the School of Chemistry at
the University of Bristol. A few months after the initial report was
released last year, both the Environmental Investigation Agency and the
New York Times published reports in which Chinese manufacturers in the
region confirmed they were using CFC-11 in the production of foams.
Manufacturers told the EIA they continued to use the banned product
because of its better quality and cheaper price. The New York Times
reported that some factories were producing the gas in secret, while
other manufacturers said the local governments turned a blind eye.
However, Rigby said scientists and watchdogs didn’t know just how much
manufacturers in China were emitting — about 7,000 tonnes of CFC-11
since 2013 in that area alone.
“That’s more than double the emissions we were expecting from China at
the time,” he said. “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.”
Rigby also mentions that CFC-11 is a greenhouse gas, about “5,000 times
more potent than carbon dioxide at warming the climate.”
The Chinese government has been cracking down on illegal CFC-11
manufacturers and shutting down production facilities and Rigby hopes
this new study will help law enforcement officials in their search for
illicit producers.
Due to the limited locations of their monitoring network, Rigby said the
study team cannot conclusively determine where the rest of the CFC
emissions are coming from, pointing out they have no information on
regions such as South America, western China and India.
According to a 2018 United Nations report, due to the progress of the
Montreal Protocol, the huge ozone hole that forms above Antarctica could
be completely healed by the mid-century.
But Rigby said if the increased emissions from eastern China aren’t
stopped soon, the healing process could be delayed by “potentially decades.”
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