Even prohibited, accumulation of gases harmful to the ozone layer continues to worry experts

Os CFC were used massively as cooling agents and inside aerosol containers in the 1970s and 1980s, until they were banned in 1987 by the Montreal Protocol, after the discovery of the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica.

This opening is gradually being closed, and the UN environmental agency estimated in January that it could be filled in about four decades.

Ozone layer will have recovered in four decades, says UN

The ozone layer that covers the stratosphere and protects the planet from solar radiation will have been reconstituted in the next four decades, if it continues on its current trajectory — states an international scientific report released this Monday (9).

O study from the journal Nature Geoscience (🇬🇧) evaluates, based on the analysis of five gases CFC Between 2010 and 2020, leaks occurred during the manufacture of the chemicals that will replace them, hydrofluorocarbons (HFC).

O Montreal Protocol is a treaty that prohibits the direct issuance of CFCs in the atmosphere, but not in its use in the production of chemical products, in raw materials or their by-products. A recent amendment to the Protocol already provides for the elimination of HFCs. However, some data suggests that its use is illegal.

According to study co-author Luke Western of the University of Bristol and the World Surveillance Laboratory, emissions have so far had a modest impact on the ozone layer.

They represent the equivalent of Switzerland's CO2 emissions in 2020, i.e. approximately 1% of the United States' total greenhouse gas emissions. According to the study, this data symbolizes an “early warning”.

In 2018, scientists discovered that the rate of decline in CFCs had decreased by half compared to the previous five years.

Some factories in China, however, are considered responsible for an increase in these emissions, once the reduction in rates has been identified once the production of CFCs was interrupted.

The published study also recommends additional investigations to discover where the exact source of the increase in chlorofluorocarbon emissions is located.

(To AFP)

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