Ozone depleting chemicals

The U.S. Senate voted to ratify an international treaty on Sept. 21, 2022, agreeing to phase out a class of climate-warming chemicals that are widely used as coolants in refrigerators, air conditioners and heat pumps. If you’re getting a sense of déjà vu, don’t be surprised. These chemicals, called hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, were commercialized in the 1990s as a replacement for earlier refrigerants that were based on chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs. CFCs were destroying the ozone layer high in the Earth’s atmosphere, which is essential for protecting life from the Sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation. HFCs are less harmful than CFCs, but they create another problem – they have a strong heat-trapping effect that is contributing to global warming. If HFCs can be phased down globally – as many countries have agreed to do under the 2016 Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, the treaty just ratified by the U.S. Senate on a bipartisan...