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Kyoto projects harm ozone layer: U.N. official
Mon Aug 13, 2007 9:07AM EDT
By Gerard Wynn
LONDON (Reuters) - The biggest emissions-cutting projects under the
Kyoto Protocol on global warming have directly contributed to an
increase in the production of gases that destroy the ozone layer, a
senior U.N. official says.
In addition, evidence suggests that the same projects, in developing
countries, have deliberately raised their emissions of greenhouse
gases only to destroy these and therefore claim more carbon credits,
said Stanford University's Michael Wara.
Kyoto is meant to curb emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed for
global warming, but is undermining a separate pact called the Montreal
Protocol, meant to phase out gases which harm the earth's ozone layer.
That layer in the atmosphere shields the planet from damaging
ultra-violet rays that can cause skin cancer.
At the heart of the clash is a carbon trading scheme under Kyoto,
worth $5 billion last year, whereby rich countries pay poorer ones to
cut greenhouse gas emissions on their behalf, called the clean
development mechanism (CDM).
The most popular type of project has been to destroy a potent
greenhouse gas known as HFC 23, one of a family of so-called
hydrofluorocarbons, in China and India.
The problem is that HFC 23 is a waste product in the manufacture of a
refrigerant gas which damages the ozone layer, called HCFC 22, and
chemical plants have used their CDM profits to ramp up production.
"This is certainly one of the major drivers now in the increase in
production of HCFC 22," Rajendra Shende, director of ozone issues at
the United Nations Environment Programme, which administers the
Montreal Protocol, said on Monday.
HCFC 22 now risked undoing recent repair to the ozone layer, Shende
said in an interview.
Chemical plants have used CDM profits to cut the sale price of HCFC
22, pricing out alternatives that don't deplete ozone such as carbon
dioxide and ammonia.
"(U.N.) bodies need to work more together, to see the actions of one
don't risk the actions of another," Shende said.
Governments signed up to the Montreal Protocol will likely vote next
month to accelerate the complete phase out of HCFC 22 in developing
countries by 2025 or 2030 from 2040 now, he said.
LUCRATIVE
CDM projects which destroy HFC 23 are especially lucrative because the
gas is 12,000 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide
(CO2), although its overall contribution to climate change is far less
because CO2 is much more common.
As a result, destroying HFC 23 spawns far more money-spinning carbon
credits than any other way of curbing greenhouse gas emissions.
Carbon trading isn't the only reason why HCFC 22 production is up,
said Shende. A fund raised under the Montreal Protocol has paid makers
of air conditioners and fridges to use HCFC 22 instead of more
dangerous ozone-depleting gases, CFCs.
In addition, increasingly affluent classes in developing countries are
now better able to afford air conditioners.
HOT AIR
The environmental credentials of HFC 23 projects are further
undermined by evidence that chemical plants in China have deliberately
"tuned" their factories to produce more of what should be a waste
product, to make more money under CDM.
Chemical plants participating in CDM make twice as much HFC 23 as a
proportion of the actual end product refrigerant than those in rich
countries which can't participate in the scheme, said Michael Wara,
research fellow at Stanford University.
"It doubles the flow of carbon credits, but there are real questions
whether it's hot air," Wara said. The carbon credits are being used as
carbon offsets to allow companies to continue to produce greenhouse
gases in Europe.
"They've tuned the plants to double the amount of HFC 23 you would
normally produce, for example in Europe or the United States. All CDM
participant plants came in at 3 percent (HFC 23 versus HCFC 22), the
Kyoto Protocol maximum, versus 1.5 percent in countries that can't
participate in the scheme."
--
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to
escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. -- Marcus Aurelius
Wherever I go it will be well with me, for it was well with me here, not
on account of the place, but of my judgments which I shall carry away
with me, for no one can deprive me of these; on the contrary, they alone
are my property, and cannot be taken away, and to possess them suffices
me wherever I am or whatever I do. -- EPICTETUS
Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMcharter.net
Mon Aug 13, 2007 9:07AM EDT
By Gerard Wynn
LONDON (Reuters) - The biggest emissions-cutting projects under the
Kyoto Protocol on global warming have directly contributed to an
increase in the production of gases that destroy the ozone layer, a
senior U.N. official says.
In addition, evidence suggests that the same projects, in developing
countries, have deliberately raised their emissions of greenhouse
gases only to destroy these and therefore claim more carbon credits,
said Stanford University's Michael Wara.
Kyoto is meant to curb emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed for
global warming, but is undermining a separate pact called the Montreal
Protocol, meant to phase out gases which harm the earth's ozone layer.
That layer in the atmosphere shields the planet from damaging
ultra-violet rays that can cause skin cancer.
At the heart of the clash is a carbon trading scheme under Kyoto,
worth $5 billion last year, whereby rich countries pay poorer ones to
cut greenhouse gas emissions on their behalf, called the clean
development mechanism (CDM).
The most popular type of project has been to destroy a potent
greenhouse gas known as HFC 23, one of a family of so-called
hydrofluorocarbons, in China and India.
The problem is that HFC 23 is a waste product in the manufacture of a
refrigerant gas which damages the ozone layer, called HCFC 22, and
chemical plants have used their CDM profits to ramp up production.
"This is certainly one of the major drivers now in the increase in
production of HCFC 22," Rajendra Shende, director of ozone issues at
the United Nations Environment Programme, which administers the
Montreal Protocol, said on Monday.
HCFC 22 now risked undoing recent repair to the ozone layer, Shende
said in an interview.
Chemical plants have used CDM profits to cut the sale price of HCFC
22, pricing out alternatives that don't deplete ozone such as carbon
dioxide and ammonia.
"(U.N.) bodies need to work more together, to see the actions of one
don't risk the actions of another," Shende said.
Governments signed up to the Montreal Protocol will likely vote next
month to accelerate the complete phase out of HCFC 22 in developing
countries by 2025 or 2030 from 2040 now, he said.
LUCRATIVE
CDM projects which destroy HFC 23 are especially lucrative because the
gas is 12,000 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide
(CO2), although its overall contribution to climate change is far less
because CO2 is much more common.
As a result, destroying HFC 23 spawns far more money-spinning carbon
credits than any other way of curbing greenhouse gas emissions.
Carbon trading isn't the only reason why HCFC 22 production is up,
said Shende. A fund raised under the Montreal Protocol has paid makers
of air conditioners and fridges to use HCFC 22 instead of more
dangerous ozone-depleting gases, CFCs.
In addition, increasingly affluent classes in developing countries are
now better able to afford air conditioners.
HOT AIR
The environmental credentials of HFC 23 projects are further
undermined by evidence that chemical plants in China have deliberately
"tuned" their factories to produce more of what should be a waste
product, to make more money under CDM.
Chemical plants participating in CDM make twice as much HFC 23 as a
proportion of the actual end product refrigerant than those in rich
countries which can't participate in the scheme, said Michael Wara,
research fellow at Stanford University.
"It doubles the flow of carbon credits, but there are real questions
whether it's hot air," Wara said. The carbon credits are being used as
carbon offsets to allow companies to continue to produce greenhouse
gases in Europe.
"They've tuned the plants to double the amount of HFC 23 you would
normally produce, for example in Europe or the United States. All CDM
participant plants came in at 3 percent (HFC 23 versus HCFC 22), the
Kyoto Protocol maximum, versus 1.5 percent in countries that can't
participate in the scheme."
--
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to
escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. -- Marcus Aurelius
Wherever I go it will be well with me, for it was well with me here, not
on account of the place, but of my judgments which I shall carry away
with me, for no one can deprive me of these; on the contrary, they alone
are my property, and cannot be taken away, and to possess them suffices
me wherever I am or whatever I do. -- EPICTETUS
Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMcharter.net
