$573 Million Will Halve Developing Country CFCs

ROME, Italy, December 2, 2002 (ENS) - Negotiators from 140 governments have adopted a $573 million funding package to halve the consumption and production in developing countries of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), the leading destroyer of the stratospheric ozone layer, by the year 2005.

The CFCs will be reduced by 50 percent relative to a baseline of average 1995 to 1997 levels. CFCs have been used since the 1930s in refrigerators and air conditioners. They remain in the atmosphere for decades or even centuries. Exposure to UV-C and to too much UV-B can cause melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers, more eye cataracts, weakened immune systems, reduced plant yields, damage to ocean eco-systems and reduced fishing yields, adverse effects on animals, and damage to plastics.

The funding package was adopted at the 14th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol, held from November 25 to 29. Also gathering at the same time was the 6th Conference of the Parties to the Vienna Convention, which meets every three years and is the framework treaty under which the Montreal Protocol was negotiated.

The funds will also finance projects for reducing other substances targeted for phaseout under the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. Developing countries have until 2005 to cut CFCs and halons by 50 percent, the fumigant methyl bromide by 20 percent, and the solvents carbon tetrachloride by 50 percent, and methylchloroform by 30 percent.

Halons are primarily used in fire extinguishers. Together with other chemicals, they destroy ozone molecules in the stratosphere that protect all living things from ultra-violet (UV) radiation.

"Eliminating CFCs and other ozone depleting substances in developing countries is the top priority today for the global campaign to return our protective ozone layer to health," said Shafqat Kakakhel, deputy executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme.

"This agreement demonstrates just how much the world's governments can achieve when they collaborate with one another in good faith to tackle a common challenge. The partnership between developed and developing countries must remain strong for many years to come, however, if the ozone layer is indeed to make a full recovery," he said.

The 1987 Montreal Protocol requires developing countries to continue reducing CFCs, halons and carbon tetrachloride by a total of 85 percent by the year 2007 and to phase them out completely by 2010; they also have until 2015 to phase out methyl bromide. Developed countries phased out virtually all of their CFCs by 1996.

The funding levels agreed today - the highest ever - will replenish the Protocol's Multilateral Fund for the 2003 - 2005 period. The funding includes $474 million in new contributions, $76 million in earlier contributions that were not allocated during the 2000 - 2002 period, and $23 million from interest earnings and other sources.

Last week, the Fund's Executive Committee also met in Rome and approved the expenditure of $82 million for new projects. These projects will eliminate the consumption of some 9,000 metric tons of ozone depleting substances and the production of 2,000 metric tons.

This will bring the total amount to be eliminated through Fund supported projects in 125 developing countries to 226,000 metric tons.

The newly approved projects will complete the phaseout of CFC consumption in industrial processes in Nigeria and the Philippines as well as in Indonesia's refrigeration industry. They will also end all CFC production in Argentina and most of China's production and consumption of carbon tetrachoride.

The Fund has dispersed some $1.5 billion of the $1.6 billion approved in previous replenishments on projects and activities in developing countries since 1991.

Official documents and other information materials are posted at: www.unep.org/ozone/. See also www.unmfs.org and www.uneptie.org/ozonaction.

Unlike the idiotic Kyoto Protocol, the Montreal Protocol addressed an important issue, and (somewhat amazingly) it's working.

Is this really working? Freon (carbon tetra-cloride) is about 10% more efficient than the best of the replacements. This requires more energy from the engine or electricity to power the air conditioner/refrigerator. DuPont owns the patents to all the replacements. The chemistry of the replacement doesn't seem any less likely to interact harmfully with ozone. However, the theory of how freon interacts with ozone (1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry) has not been verified experimentally.

What have we gained?

"Halons are primarily used in fire extinguishers. Together with other chemicals, they destroy ozone molecules in the stratosphere that protect all living things from ultra-violet (UV) radiation."

This has never been proven.

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