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On the floor of the factory shed in
ramshackle potholed industrial zone on the outskirts of Mongolia’s capital, are
strewn nine huge cylinders of hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC), an industrial
gas used in this case insulation pads for the walls of buildings.
The hundreds of foam pads stacked up
against a wall. After a couple of years of doldrums, Bilguun Trading can’t turn
them out gast enough now. Ulaanbaatar seeing a massive building boom on the
back of Mongolia’s staggering 17.3 per cent economic growth last year driven
mainly by controversial extraction of natural resources.
The international media has lately been
full of stories on the boom, and the transformation of the capital. There are
so many modern buildings coming up now that you can barely see the storied
mountains outside the city or the big skies that the country is famous for. The
statue of Lenin still standing outside the Soviet-era Ulaanbaatar hotel is
being dwarfed by gleaming new high rises.
But none of the articles I have seen
mention the sting in the tail which remains hidden from the public eye or lost
in the clear blue sky.
The problem is, the HCFCs while relatively
benign to the critical ozone layer, are significant drivers of global warming.
The Mongolian government wants Mr Bataa to stop using HCFCs to comply with its
international obligations.
HCFCs are only one of a two-pronged problem closely linked to
economic growth and urbanisarion. The other is another family of gases called
hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HFC), used in air condition- an industry that is
growing by 20 per cent per annum in Asia.
From Mongolia to Myanmar, and across
Asia, new construction booms and rising affluent middle class are fuelling a
dangerous rise in the use of these gases.
At current rates of use and growth,
HCFCs and HFCs used in building insulation, air conditioning and refrigeration,
will drive 27 per cent of global warming by 2050. The biggest drivers are of
course the giant economies of China and India. But no less critical are new
sources coming on line as thus far low-impact cities like Ulaanbaatar and
Yangon, enter the scene with their frantic building sprees fuelled by foreign
investor interest.
In his first office, director of
Bilguun Trading Mr Bataa Ch- who collects rare Mongolian-Tibetan Buddhist
tangkas in his spare time- spoke accasionally bitterly, with visiting
government and United Nations experts about the difficulties of converting his
production system.
Mr Bataa has two years to switch
from HCFCs to another technology. He will get US$ 65,000 to help him, from the
Montreal Protocol. But that is not nearly enough, he says. Setting up a new
production system could cost him a milliom dollars.
Under the 1987 Montreal Protocol,
considered the world’s successful environmental agreement, the earlier family
of gases used refrigerators and air conditioners and propellants and foam from
car seats to household upholstery- and which decimated the ozone layer- was
phased out and replaced with HCFCs and HFCs.
But while that helped the ozone hole
discovered in the 1970s to stabilize and edge towards recovery, these gases
pack a greenhouse gas punch gar higher than carbon dioxide, the chief villain
of global warming. HFCs for instance, have a greenhouse gas effect 2,100 times
greates than carbon dioxide.
The Multilateral Fund under the
Montreal Protocol, helps finance conversation to gases less harmful to ozone,
and less powerful as agents of global warming. But conversion is difficult even
without resistance from entrenched industrial interests.
Less harmful substitutes like
hydrocarbons have been developed, but red tape and restrictions- because some
are flammable- make them difficult to convert to. There are also industrial
giants that produce HFCs- and resisting the use of natural refrigerants like
hydrocarbons, experts say.
‘If there are difficulties here, can
you imagine what a problem it is in other countries like China and India where
there are scores of factories like this,’ the visiting United Nations
Environment Programme expert Mr Atul Bagai said as the team left Bilguun
Trading.
The 1987 Montreal Protocol deals
with gases that destroy the ozone layer. The Kyoto Protocol- the subject of
tortuous and by large ineffective climate change talks from Copenhagen in 2009
to Durban last year- deals with a basket of 6 gases but only with total
emissions, of which HFCs are still just a small portion.
HCFCs are under the Montreal
Protocol. HFCs used in the booming air conditioner and refrigeration
industries, are not. Many experts have been clamouring for HFCs to also be
placed under the successful Protocol, which regulates their production and
funds industry to convert to less harmful substitutes. But as of now, the gases
remain under the failing Kyoto Protocol.
The Montreal Protocol can no longer
work in isolation,’ warned Mr Bagai, Bangkok-based ozone programme coordinator
for 38 Asian countries.
Leapfrogging to environmentally
friendly refrigerants has to be part of much broader debate on food security, urbanization,
safe habitat, energy security and climate change.
By Nirmal Ghosh
