Authors claim emissions could delay ozone recovery
Emissions of CFCs from certain older applications still in use may be larger than previously thought, finds a study recently published in Nature Communications. These emissions could delay the recovery of the Antarctic ozone hole and contribute the equivalent of 9 billion metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Most states have agreed to stop the use of CFCs in production as defined by the Montreal Protocol. However, emissions from products already in use (CFC banks) continue. These include some refrigerators, air conditioning units, and insulation foam. The recent unexpected rise in R-11 emissions highlights the need to quantify emissions from these banks in order to accurately assess the scale of emissions from renewed production.