(3 Minutes Read)
South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment, Bernice Swarts is participating in the 36th Meeting of the Parties (MOP 36) to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer which is undergoing in Bangkok, Thailand.
The Montreal Protocol is a global treaty established to protect the earth’s ozone layer by phasing out the production and consumption of ozone-depleting substances (ODS). The agreement, signed on 16 September 1987 and entering into force in 1989, has become a landmark in international environmental protection. Despite its successes, some ODS replacements, known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), have emerged as potent greenhouse gases, with some being over a thousand times more powerful than carbon dioxide in driving climate change.
The 2016 Kigali Amendment to the Protocol introduced measures to reduce HFCs, with an anticipated avoidance of up to 0.4°C in global temperature rise by 2100, while still safeguarding the ozone layer. Key agenda topics for MOP 36 include life cycle refrigerant management, emissions of carbon tetrachloride, feedstock uses of controlled substances, and energy-efficient, low-global-warming-potential technologies.
On Wednesday (30/10/24), SA Deputy Minister Swarts will deliver a statement during the high-level segment of the combined meetings of the Conference of the Parties to the Vienna Convention and the 35th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol. The segment will be chaired by the Presidents of both meetings and attended by representatives from the United Nations Environment Programme. Deputy Minister Swarts will engage in bilateral meetings with counterparts from other countries to strengthen collaboration on phasing out ozone-depleting substances. She will also attend several side events on information sharing on the management of Ozone Depleting Substances and maximising the climate benefit.
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When a CFC molecule reaches the stratosphere, it eventually absorbs UV radiation, causing it to decompose and release its chlorine atoms. One chlorine atom can destroy up to 100,000 ozone molecules. Too many of these chlorine and bromine reactions disrupt the delicate chemical balance that maintains the ozone layer, causing ozone to be destroyed faster than it is created.
