Earth's Ozone Layer Is Healing As China Stops Its CFC-11 Emissions

Other than global warming and climate change, a very persistent threat looming over our planet has been the depletion of the ozone layer.

New studies, however, prove that global efforts towards the cause can make a considerable impact.

NASA

They point out that with the reduction in the emissions of ozone-depleting chemicals, Earth¡¯s ozone layer is now healing itself.

The new study has been conducted by scientists at MIT, the University of Bristol, and other institutions across countries. Now published in the journal Nature, the research notes a dramatic drop in the levels of CFC-11 - the main culprit of ozone depletion.

CFC-11 is a chlorofluorocarbon that was most commonly used in refrigerators and in other insulators. Once released into the atmosphere, CFC-11 is able to reach the stratosphere and release chlorine by reacting with sunlight. The resulting chlorine used to break down the Earth¡¯s ozone layer.

(Representative Image: Reuters)

This was an old practice though. Such chlorofluorocarbons are now banned under an international treaty called the Montreal Protocol. As per the treaty, every country agreed to phase out the chemicals¡¯ production and use by 2010.

Alarming spike in CFC-11

Even after its ban, a team of scientists in 2018 reported a concerning spike in global emissions of the chemical starting 2013. Similar spikes were reported by a second team in 2019. The spikes were traced to the factory-heavy provinces of Shandong and Hebie in eastern China.

The studies at the time noted that the global emissions of CFC-11 grew by more than 14,000 U.S. tons a year from 2014 to 2016.

Relief for earth's ozone layer

(Representative Image: NASA)

The recent papers now report that global annual emissions of CFC-11 into the atmosphere have declined sharply. From 2018 to 2019, the CFC-11 has declined by about 20,000 U.S. tons, explains a post by MIT. The drop in the CFC-11 levels were traced to the very same regions of eastern China where the original spike was recorded.

This is evidence that China has taken successful actions to put a stop to the illegal production of this ozone-depleting chemical.

¡°This is tremendously encouraging,¡± says Ronald Prinn, the director of the Center for Global Change Science at MIT and a co-author on both papers. ¡°If emissions of CFC-11 had continued to rise or even just leveled off, there would have been a much bigger problem building up. The global monitoring networks really caught this spike in time, and subsequent actions have lowered emissions before they became a real threat to recovery of the ozone layer.¡±