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Progress Made Toward Phasing Out Planet-Warming 'Super' Greenhouse Gases

Asher Jones

   WASHINGTON - Rare bipartisan support for new climate legislation brings
   the U.S. one step closer to ditching a group of potent planet-warming
   chemicals.

   Democratic and Republican senators recently introduced an [1]amendment
   to the American Energy Innovation Act that would reduce production and
   use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)--chemicals widely used in
   refrigeration, air conditioning and insulation. The legislation is also
   supported by [2]environmental groups and the [3]U.S. Chamber of
   Commerce, an organization that represents American businesses.

   "This amendment would spur billions of dollars of economic growth in
   domestic manufacturing and create tens of thousands of new jobs, all
   while helping our planet avoid half a degree Celsius in global
   warming," Democratic Sen. Tom Carper, co-sponsor of the amendment,
   [4]said in a statement.

   Brief history of HFCs

   HFCs were commercialized in the 1990s as alternatives to chemicals that
   deplete ozone, the important atmospheric layer that protects the planet
   from damaging solar radiation.

   In a global response to protect the ozone layer, 197 nations signed the
   Montreal Protocol in 1987 to phase out use of ozone-depleting
   chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs).

   Although HFCs are much less damaging to the ozone layer than CFCs, they
   harm the planet in a different way. As greenhouse gases, HFCs trap heat
   in the atmosphere and cause the planet to warm. HFCs are sometimes
   called "super" greenhouse gases because they are up to 4,000 times more
   potent than carbon dioxide.

   "HFCs also have lifetimes in the atmosphere of five to 50 years. So,
   once the molecule is emitted, it stays in the atmosphere for a long
   time, and therefore it can accumulate to large concentrations," said
   Guus Velders, senior scientist of air quality and climate change at the
   Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM).

   Global solutions to global problems

   In 2009, researchers sounded the alarm about the effects of HFCs on
   climate change. In 2016, the international Kigali Amendment to the
   Montreal Protocol was established to phase down use of these
   planet-warming gases. Reduction of HFC emissions under this amendment
   could avoid up to 0.5 degrees Celsius of global temperature rise by the
   end of the century.

   "The Kigali Amendment is the first fully funded, multilateral, legally
   binding action to control global climate," said David Fahey, director
   of the Earth System Research Laboratories at the U.S. National Oceanic
   and Atmospheric Administration. "Kigali is the first really strong
   motion forward to do something. And this, of course, isn't going to
   solve the climate problem. But it is part of the solution."

References

   1. https://www.epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2020/9/carper-barrasso-and-kennedy-announce-agreement-on-hfcs-amendment-to-energy-bill
   2. https://www.nrdc.org/experts/david-doniger/house-holds-hearing-bipartisan-hfc-phasedown-bill
   3. (https://www.uschamber.com/press-release/us-chamber-calls-senate-hfcs-agreement-win-win-manufacturers-and-the-environment
   4. https://www.epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases-democratic?ID=F76EB6C5-3C5C-4BBE-B4D6-66AD15F0D33C

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