Crackdown on ozone depleting substances heats up

KARACHI: After successfully banning industrial and other use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), the first generation of ozone depleting substances (ODSs), Pakistan is pursuing a strict plan to phase out the second generation of similar pollutants known as hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), a minister said on Friday.
“In the first stage, we have phased out HCFCs from all the major foam manufacturing industries,” Mushahidullah Khan, federal minister for climate change, said addressing the delegates at the 29th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol (MOP 29) and the 11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Vienna Convention currently underway in Montreal, Canada.
“We are ready to launch the second phase with the help of the multilateral fund and its partners implementing agencies and cooperation with all stakeholders.”
Giving the country statement, Khan said no ODSs were manufactured in Pakistan owing to a strict regulatory regime checking imports of these substances with a system of licensing and quotas for the sourcing of HCFCs from overseas.
“We are also introducing some additional regulations to streamline the future use of these substances and equipment in industry,” the minister said. He also informed the audience that Pakistan has initiated the process of ratification of Kigali amendment. “In this regard a letter of endorsement to UN Environment for developing activity-enabling activity has been developed,” Khan added.
He pointed out that in the context of phasing down of HCFCs, Pakistan’s concern exist due to a number of reasons including availability of substitutes at affordable prices and transfer of technologies. “Being a developing economy, our industrial sector is already under stress and is not mature enough to undergo another phase-out,” said he.
He also highlighted that Pakistan was among top ten countries most vulnerable to climate change and was threatened in many ways, inter alia, through glacier melting, low crop productivity, scorching summer temperature, prolonged heat spells, droughts and extreme precipitation.
“Despite all these challenges, the government of Pakistan is committed to protect ozone layer,” the minister assured the meeting. The Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer was adopted in 1985 and took effect on 22 Sep 1988. In 2009, the Vienna Convention became the first convention of any kind to achieve universal ratification.
The objectives of the convention were for Parties to promote cooperation by means of systematic observations, research and information exchange on the effects of human activities on the ozone layer and to adopt legislative or administrative measures against activities likely to have adverse effects on the ozone layer.
The ‘Montreal protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer’ was designed to reduce the production and consumption of ODSs in order to reduce their abundance in the atmosphere, and thereby protect the earth's fragile ozone layer. The original Montreal Protocol was agreed on September 16, 1987 and on January 1, 1989.