China shuts down rogue plants behind CFC gases

ROGUE chemical plants discharging illegal gases have been targeted by the Chinese government.

The authorities started a nationwide operation after it was discovered ozone-depleting gases were being released in north-east China.

The action included arrests and the closure of at least two illicit facilities producing the banned chemical CFC-11, used in the production of expanding foams.

“The government has followed up on the companies we identified in 2018,” said Clare Perry of EIA International, the environmental organisation.

“It has undertaken a nationwide enforcement effort, including raising the penalties for using CFC-11, and has shut down two CFC-11 production sites.” It was confirmed yesterday by scientists reporting in the journal Nature that industries in north-east China have spewed large quantities of CFC-11 into the atmosphere.

Since 2013, emissions have increased by about 7,000 tons yearly in the area, slowing the rate at which holes in the ozone layer are repairing themselves.

“CFCS are the main culprit in depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer, which protects us from the Sun’s ultraviolet radiation,” said lead author Matt Rigby, an atmospheric chemist at the University of Bristol.

The 1987 Montreal Protocol banned CFCS and other industrial aerosols that chemically dissolve protective ozone six to 25 miles above the Earth’s surface, after holes were detected over Antarctica and Australia.