Ozone protection feels the heat

Fionnuala Walravens, BBC Green Room 16 Dec 08;

Former UN chief Kofi Annan described the 1989 Montreal Protocol to protect the ozone layer as "probably the most successful environmental agreement to date". But in this week's Green Room, Fionnuala Walravens considers how the complex interactions of ozone depletion and climate change in the atmosphere are mirrored in the global political debate.

The Montreal Protocol, the international agreement designed to protect the ozone layer, has reached a major crossroads.

Last year's 20th anniversary meeting of the global framework to protect the ozone layer agreed to significantly accelerate the phasing-out of ozone-depleting hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs).

This was applauded worldwide as an historic achievement that could also save billions of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, because HCFCs are many thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide.

However their likely replacements, the ozone-benign hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), are also potent global warming gases, often more destructive than the HCFCs they are replacing.

Despite this, HFCs are widely marketed by the refrigeration industry as environmentally friendly.

They have also been readily accepted as replacements to ozone depleting gases in many industrialised countries.

As a result, scientists have found atmospheric concentrations of HFCs are increasing at such a rate that by 2015 their emissions will be over 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalence (CO2-eq).

This appears to place the Montreal Protocol directly at odds with the goals of the Kyoto Protocol, which controls emissions of global warming gases including HFCs.

Montreal vs Kyoto

To the bystander, these treaties are heading ominously down very different roads.

As the Montreal Protocol speeds up the phase-out of HCFCs in developing countries, it is clear that serious intervention is needed to ensure that they do not end up in an HFC cul-de-sac.

If action isn't taken, last year's milestone agreement could actually result in increased global green house gas emissions - and certainly we will not see anything like the 12-15 billion tonnes of CO2-eq savings being widely quoted by the United Nations.

So far, the Kyoto Protocol has yet to wake up to the fact that HFC emissions are likely to continue rising considerably in the foreseeable future.

Climate meetings are dominated by the larger debates over deforestation and emissions trading, while the deliberate production of potent greenhouse gases, such as HFCs for refrigeration and air-conditioning, tend to slip under the radar.

The good news is that there are sustainable, climate-friendly, alternatives to HFCs: so-called natural refrigerants like carbon dioxide (ironically), ammonia and hydrocarbons.

Unlike HFCs, they are not man-made and importantly they do not have global warming potentials thousands of times greater than CO2.

Additionally, equipment using these gases is often more energy efficient than those using HFCs, thus delivering a double climate benefit.

Companies producing these natural refrigerants tend to be far smaller than the big chemical giants that produce HFCs and it has been a challenge selling these natural refrigerants to a market resilient to change.

However, the tide may be beginning to turn. Some large multinational corporations are turning their backs on HFCs in favour of natural alternatives.

For example, Unilever has fitted more than 200,000 hydrocarbon chiller units in Europe, Asia and South America, while the Coca Cola Company recently confirmed plans to install 100,000 CO2 bottle coolers by 2010.

It's often the accepted viewpoint that businesses try to discourage governments from adopting more stringent environmental regulations, but the actions of this group of companies clearly demonstrate that big business is sometimes ahead of government policies.

Of course, these businesses are keen to improve their public image, and right now mitigating climate change is probably the most pressing environmental issue in the minds of their consumers.

But the reality is they have cottoned on to the fact that moving away from HFCs is a relatively cheap and simple way of reducing their carbon footprint.

Pulling together

Phasing out HFCs doesn't involve changing lifestyles, it's just a case of changing the refrigerant used and ensuring that technicians dealing with them are trained to do so.

Furthermore, many companies have reported increased energy efficiency of natural refrigerant-based equipment, making the switch more financially attractive.

Despite the HFC problem, it must be acknowledged that the Montreal Protocol has so far proved enormously successful in reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, whether intentionally designed to or not.

Ozone-depleting substances, in particular CFCs, are potent greenhouse gases. Over the past 20 years the Protocol has phased out over 95% of their production, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by an estimate 135 billion tonnes CO2-eq between 1990 and 2010, and arguably delaying global warming by up to 12 years, according to scientists.

When compared to the Kyoto Protocol's estimated 10 billion tonnes CO2-eq savings between 2008 to 2012, it's clear to see why many have lauded the Montreal Protocol as the "most effective climate treaty to date".

What makes the Montreal Protocol a successful global agreement is that it offers financial assistance towards replacement equipment and chemicals, ensuring that measures can be taken in developing countries.

What it needs to do now is ensure that the HCFC phase-out in developing countries results in the uptake of natural and climate-friendly alternatives, not HFCs.

Consumers can also play a role here by showing business and governments that we don't need HFCs.

As you walk down the cold and frozen aisles of your local supermarket (which by the way account for over half the UK's HFC emissions from refrigeration and air-conditioning), think about asking your supermarket retailer if their refrigeration is HFC-free.

But we also need leadership from the top. The common goal of both the Kyoto and Montreal Protocols is, surely, protection of the planet.

In which case, it is imperative the two start talking about a global phase-out of HFCs and stop pulling in opposite directions.

Fionnuala Walravens is part of the Environmental Investigation Agency's (EIA) global environment campaign team

The Green Room is a series of opinion articles on environmental topics running weekly on the BBC News website