Protocol expected to help save ozone

Press, 4 August 1987, Page 5

Protocol expected to help save ozone

New Zealand is among countries expected to sign an international protocol next month on reducing the use of chemicals blamed for depleting the earth’s ozone layer. The protocol, to be signed in Montreal on September 16, proposes to cut production of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) 50 per cent in a series of steps over eight years. New Zealand’s representative, Dr Tom Clarkson, said that the protocol would “give teeth” to a 1985 agreement on protection of the ozone layer, which was ratified by New Zealand in June. The exact form of the protocol would be subject to negotiation in a week of meetings before the signing, but there was now “very definite commitment” to get a protocol signed, he said. Dr Clarkson, an atmospheric chemist with the Meteorological Service in Wellington, said that the two main players, the United States and the European Community, held the key to the issue.

The United States had been calling for a virtu-

ally complete phasing out of CFCs over a much shorter period, while the E.C. had originally resisted any cutback, he said.

The E.C. had since agreed to a 20 per cent cut, and Dr Clarkson predicted the Europeans would go along with 50 per cent, with some compromises. There are 40 or more CFCs in use, many known by their trade names, “Freon” and “Arcon.”

CFC 11, used in spray cans and as the foam creation agent in foam plastics, and CFC 12, used as a refrigerant, posed “by far the biggest problems,” said Dr Clarkson. A Government committee was working on the impact the protocol would have on New Zealand industry.

Dr Clarkson said that the spray-can industry should not have much trouble adapting. It accounted for only about 25 per cent of the CFCs used in New Zealand. CFCs had already been largely replaced in spray cans, because of a virtual ban on their use in the United

States and Canada. Replacing CFCs in the refrigeration industry would take more time, and would probably mean new designs and higher prices, he said. The protocol has been hastened by increasing concern by scientists at the depletion of the ozone layer, particularly since the discovery two years ago of the springtime “ozone hole” over the Antarctic. Global ozone levels have fallen about 3 per cent since 1980, and a 35 per cent drop is recorded between September and November over the Antarctic.

Ozone is important as a protective screen against ultraviolet radiation, without which there would be increased skin cancer, and changes to animal and plant life and the climate. Dr Clarkson said that scientists were now more confident of the link between CFCs and the depletion of the layer.

Like the link between smoking and cancer, it was difficult to prove, but the evidence was building up, he said.

New Zealand will participate in a United Statesled scientific probe into the Antarctic ozone hole this spring.

The probe will include several flights by a specially equipped DCB airliner, from southern Chile to New Zealand and back, under the ozone hole. More than 160 scientists, pilots and support staff from the United Statesi France, Britain, New Zealand, Argentina and Chile will take part.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration will also send its ER2 research plane — a version of the infamous U2 high altitude spy plane — right into the hole at an altitude of about 20km.

The Meteorological Service will also set up a measuring device, known as a “Dobson spectrophotometer” at Scott Base in January. The device has previously been used at Invercargill as part of a world network monitoring ozone levels. Its place in the network has been taken by another, recently installed in Central Otago by the D.S.I.R.