/REPEAT/ENVIRONMENT: Strides against Methyl Bromide at Ozone Layer Meet

By Estrella Gutiérrez Reprint | | Print |

Estrella Gutierrez

CARACAS, Sep 26 1997 (IPS) - The ninth meeting of the parties of the Montreal Protocol on protection of the ozone layer made important progress towards the restriction of methyl bromide, according to the coordinator of negotiations on the heated issue.

Eduardo Lopez from Venezuela coordinated the negotations on reducing the phase-out period for the production of methyl bromide at the meeting held in Montreal, Canada, where the Protocol was born 10 years ago.

The accord was “difficult and last minute,” but it shortened the phase-out period for eliminating the ozone-depleting chemical by five years, Lopez told IPS on his return from Montreal.

The question of methyl bromide was the key issue tackled at the gathering. Canada also hosted a ministerial-level meeting to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Protocol, with prizes awarded to nations and personalities involved in outstanding efforts against ozone-depleting substances.

Also discussed were hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), a widely- used transitional substitute for chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) which are to be eliminated by the year 2040 – a deadline the European Union (EU) sought to move forward to the year 2020.

Participating in the negotiations on methyl bromide were Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, Egypt, Kenya, China and Sri Lanka from the South and Canada, Great Britain, Italy, Australia, the United States and the European Union from the North.

Negotiators finally agreed that methyl bromide should be eliminated by the North in the year 2005, rather than the 2001 deadline proposed by Canada and the United States.

Although environmentalists termed the compromise “a tragedy,” the phase-out period is five years shorter than the deadline set by the 1995 Protocol meeting in Vienna.

While the U.S. proposal included a single timetable for both North and South, the 10-year grace period for the developing world was maintained, said Lopez.

The South agreed to freeze consumption in the year 2002 and reduce consumption levels by 20 percent by 2005, eliminating it totally by 2015.

Chloro and bromide are the chief ozone-depleting chemicals due because they are extremely stable. They float in the atmosphere for five to seven years, and upon reaching the stratosphere divide ozone molecules and damage the protective ozone layer.

The less harmful HCFCs replaced CFCs, which were eliminated in industrialised countries in 1996, while the developing world is to freeze consumption in July 1999 at the average 1995-97 levels.

Speaking with IPS in Montreal, environmentalists expressed their concern that the 2001 and 2020 deadlines for phasing out methyl bromide and HCFCs respectively were not accepted, while stressing the existence of a black market for CFCs.

CFCs have a calculated destructive rate of one percent and methyl bromide 0.6 percent, compared to the 0.015 percent of HCFCs.

Lopez pointed to an economic and commercial backdrop to the positions of the methyl bromide negotiators. For example, U.S. anti-pollution legislation forces that country to eliminate consumption of any ozone-depleting substance that has an over 0.2 percent destructive rate. But there is yet no adequate universal substitute capable of fulfilling the multiple applications of methyl bromide.

That chemical is mainly used in agriculture, to protect exports and as a pesticide and fumigator in soil and silos. It is much more toxic than chloro and destroys ozone faster. But when the Protocol was signed its impact was still unknown.

The United States fears the impact of the comparative advantage enjoyed by the countries of the South, which have 10 additional years to use methyl bromide in agriculture, said Lopez. But Washington is especially wary of finding itself at a disadvantage with respect to the EU, the bloc that stands to gain the most if the United States is forced to stop using methyl bromide earlier than the EU and before an effective substitute is found.

The most vocal opponents to the proposal to reduce the timeframe on methyl bromide fixed in 1995 were Italy, France and Spain, three leading EU agricultural producers.

Within the South, opposition to a shorter phase-out period was led by Mexico, which along with China is one of the biggest consumers of methyl bromide – on which the Mexican delegation presented “very serious studies,” according to Lopez.

Mexico – whose position can be explained by its annual consumption of 5,000 to 6,000 tonnes of the substance – was joined by Kenya, in spite of that country’s low consumption – a mere 50 tonnes a year in flower-growing.

The final agreement was reached with countries of the South accepting the obligation to make a “significant, not symbolic” curtailment of methyl bromide, and the industrialised world agreeing to end production and consumption by the year 2005, thus cutting the period in which the United States would be on its own in eliminating the chemical to four years.

With respect to HCFCs, used in the production of foam rubber, Lopez said the South and the United States formed an alliance opposed to reducing the phase-put period until a substitute was found.

He explained that major investments had been made to stage the transition from CFCs to HCFCs, which meant their elimination by the year 2020 “would have a very high cost against a marginal benefit for the ozone layer.”

But “the timetable will be reviewed in the year 2000,” he added.

“If positions difficult to meet are imposed, violations would be probable, which would benefit neither the ozone layer nor the Protocol,” said Lopez, who described the consensus achieved after the tense negotiation process as “positive.”

In Montreal, the World Meteorological Organisation presented a report demonstrating that damage to the ozone layer protecting the earth from dangerous ultra-violet rays has been contained, and that if the Protocol is complied with, the problem should begin to be turned around in the year 2000.

Emissions of ozone-depleting chemicals – 90 percent of which are consumed by the industrialised North – have been considerably reduced, said the WMO.

But the “Antarctic hole” over the South Pole will only be closed around the year 2050 if deadlines are strictly followed, it warned.

The ozone layer is so thin that if compressed it would be no larger than the sole of a shoe. But in spite of its fragility, it blocks the passage of the most lethal ultra-violet rays.

Lopez presides over Venezuela’s Industrial Development Fund (Fondoin), an autonomous state office created in 1989 to oversee compliance with the Montreal Protocol and the elimination of ozone- depleting substances in the country.

Fondoin is considered a model at an international level, and received special recognition on the 10th anniversary of the Protocol, along with 11 other offices worldwide, two of which were in Peru and Uruguay.

Lopez himself also received an award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, along with 70 other outstanding figures in the fight against ozone-depleting substances.

Fondoin projects have been applied in countries as distant as China and the Philippines, as well as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico and Uruguay.