China is to blame for much of the increase in illegal ozone-depleting substances (ODS) since 2013, according to a study published by the journal Nature on Thursday, with domestic companies accused of violating a global production ban.
About 40-60 per cent of the global rise in the prohibited ozone-destroying refrigerant trichlorofluoromethane (CFC-11) since 2013 could be attributed to the industrial provinces of Shandong and Hebei in northern China, researchers from Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation and Britain’s University of Bristol said.
China ratified the treaty in 1991 and it said last year it has already eliminated as much as 280,000 tonnes of annual ODS production capacity and was speeding up efforts to phase out other ozone-damaging chemicals.
Read Also: Chinese illegal immigrants in Nigeria: NGO calls for probe
But a report last year by the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) claimed dozens of Chinese companies were still using the banned CFC-11 in the production of polyurethane foam.