Ozone-depleting CFCs hit record despite ban
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | May 2023
Five man-made chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) have reached record levels in the atmosphere despite a worldwide ban on their manufacture and use. These gases dissolve the ozone layer that shields the Earth from the ultra-violet rays originating from the Sun.
CFCs are potent greenhouse gases that trap heat up to 10,000 times more efficiently than Carbon-di-oxide, the biggest cause of global warming that drives climate change. CFCs were widely used as refrigerants and in aerosol sprays in 1970s and 1980s.
A new study conducted by Global Monitoring Laboratory at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has revealed that the levels of the five CFCs measured has increased rapidly in the atmosphere from 2010 to 2020, reaching record-high levels in 2020. The study has been published in a recent issue of the journal Nature Geoscience.
The study said the increase was probably due to leakage during the production of chemicals that are meant to replace CFCs, including hydrofluorocarbons. The findings say although at current levels they do not threaten the recovery of the Ozone layer, they contribute to a different threat, joining other emissions in heating the atmosphere.
The discovery of the hole in the Ozone layer over Antarctica as a result of their use, however, led to a global agreement in 1987, termed as Montreal Protocol, to eliminate them. After the Montreal Protocol came into force, global concentrations of CFCs declined steadily.
The researchers have termed their findings ‘an early warning’ of a new way in which CFCs are endangering the ozone layer. The emissions are likely due to processes that are not subject to the current ban and unreported uses.
The class of industrial aerosols developed to replace those banned by the Montreal Protocol is to be phased out over the next three decades under a recent amendment to the 1987 treaty. M