Advice | Reckless emissions of man-made super-pollutants threaten climate progress

Parties to the Montreal Protocol – long considered the most successful environmental treaty in the world – are meeting this week in Bangkok for their annual meeting. While there are a number of important issues on the agenda, the parties must prioritize decisive action to reduce emissions of one of the most potent greenhouse gases known to man, HFC-23.

A new Environmental Research Agency (EIA) report shows how despite the success of the Montreal Protocol in phasing out ozone-depleting substances, unexplained harmful emissions of hydrofluorocarbon-23 (HFC-23) threaten the production of ozone-depleting substances. legacy of the climate.

HFC-23, which is 14,700 times more damaging to the climate than carbon dioxide (CO2), is a byproduct of the manufacturing process for HCFC-22, a controlled substance under the Montreal Protocol. While the emissive use of HCFC-22 is being phased out due to its role in depleting the ozone layer, its use in the production of other chemicals such as Teflon is permitted.

The production of these materials makes a silent but enormous contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions. And while the Kigali Amendment While the protocol requires the destruction or otherwise elimination of all HFC-23 emissions, “to the maximum extent practicable,” global studies show that there is a discrepancy between observed and reported HFC-23 emissions.

Emissions of this super pollutant climate substance amounted to a whopping 17,300 tons in 2019, equivalent to more than 250 million tons of CO2, threatening to undo decades of climate progress. Cumulative HFC-23 emissions since the adoption of the Kigali Amendment in 2016 amount to almost 106,000 tons, equivalent to 1.56 billion tons of CO2.

And yet these harmful emissions remain under the radar due to lax oversight of the fluorochemical industry. There is an urgent need for a strong response from the Parties to the Montreal Protocol.