OZONE DEPLETION: Agreement On Longer Phase Out For Methyl Bromide

By Paul Weinberg Reprint | | Print |

Paul Weinberg

TORONTO, Sep 20 1997 (IPS) - The agreement reached at a weeklong international conference in Montreal on a longer phase-out period for the production of methyl bromide proved more than a disappointment for environmentalists, concerned at the depletion of the ozone layer above Earth.

Methyl bromide is used in pesticides to fumigate soil before the planting of crops such as strawberries, tomatoes, ornamental flowers and tobacco, and it has properties known to affect the ozone. Environmental organisations like Friends of the Earth (FOE) and some countries, including Canada and the United States, had called for a quicker end to prodction of the chemical.

“It is more than a disappointment; it is a tragedy for the planet nd the integrity of the Montreal Protocol,” said FOE chief executive Beatrice Olivastri, in commenting on the decision to allow more time for methyl bromide production.

Olivastri is concerned that a lengthier phase-out is an invitation for higher levels of ultra-violet radiation to further damage an already vulnerable ozone layer in the Earth’s atmosphee.

FOE and other supporters of a tougher approach wanted industrial countries to settle on the year 2000 as a target for the elemination of the chemical. Instead, pressure for compromise by the European Union (EU), and Italy in particular, led to the acceptance by the conference for a phase out by 2005 instead. In addition, developing countries have until 2015 to curtail their production of the same substance.

The longer phase-out period for the developing countries led to countries like Italy, whose farmers are in competition with growers in North African states, to oppose a shorter time to cut methyl bromide, Olivastri said.

The United States, supported by Canada, however would not budge on its opposition to an EU proposal to scale back hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), a widely-used substitute for chloroflurocarbons (CFCs), an ozone-depleting chemical used in refrigeration and the subject of a major international elimination campaign under the Montreal Protocol.

The Americans “held fast” to the stance that their companies require time to recoup expenses on their investment into HCFCs, Olivastri noted, even though there exists an oversupply of this transitional chemical, which is mainly sold in North America. She accused chemical suppliers in the North of still attempting to market the product in the developing countries, even as the latter grappled with phasing out CFCs.

The delays in a total ban on production invariably lead to situations like the well-publicized smuggling and black marketing of such CFCs as freon, used in mot car air conditioners, according to the Friends of the Earth. While Canada has already phased out its production of methyl bromide and the United States is expected to follow suit, Olivastri says “pollution havens” in developing countries will pick up the slack.

An Israeli company, already has set up a production facility for methyl bromide in China, she alleged.

The latest conference in Montreal agreed to add 25 million dollars in the Montreal Protocol’s multilateral fund for developing countries to demonstrate alternatives to methyl bromides. Olivastri, however, says that “demonstrate is a loaded word” because the expenses do not really come from investing in a new technology for their agriculture and horticulture but in the new skills that need to be developed after its introduction.

Kenya’s vocal opposition in Montreal to any curtailment of methyl bromide came under strong criticism from Friends of the Earth because it is also the country where the U.N Environment Programme, administrator of the Montreal Protocol, has its main base. Olivastri says this is a “sensitive” issue since this is the only UN agency located in a developing country.

“The home (country) of an environmental program ought to be providing leadership, not holding the whole movement hostage, which is what we thought they were doing (in Montreal), ” she says.