Amendment to national regulation includes stiffer penalties for violations and extends coverage to hydrofluorocarbons. Hou Liqiang reports.

A vehicle equipped with water cannon is seen in Jiaozuo, Henan province, on April 11, 2023. The water cannon can disperse water into the air to control dust and reduce air pollution. (CHENG QUAN / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Editor's note: As protection of the planet's flora, fauna and resources becomes increasingly important, China Daily is publishing a series of stories to illustrate the country's commitment to safeguarding the natural world.

China has enhanced the management of ozone-depleting substances by amending a national regulation that allows the authorities to oversee their production and consumption.

The amendment has addressed some loopholes in ODS management, experts said, and will also help authorities enforce laws in a more targeted way.

With the amendment, China is expected to make even greater contributions to protecting the ozone layer and also reduce emissions of ODS substitutes that exacerbate global warming, they said.

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Premier Li Qiang signed the amendment to the regulation earlier this year as part of China's efforts to implement the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, which China joined in 1991.

Enacted in 2010, the regulation was revised for the first time in 2018. The latest amendment included stiffer penalties for violations.

Previously, for instance, those who produced ODS without a production quota permit were subject to a penalty of 1 million yuan ($139,000). They also faced confiscation of the raw materials used in production, the finished products and the illegal gains, and the dismantling and destruction of facilities used to produce and consume ODS.

The amendment raised the fine to 5 million yuan, with the other punishments unchanged.

A worker prepares a cloud seeding rocket to improve drought and air conditions in Shanxi province. (XUE JUN / FOR CHINA DAILY)

It also raised the maximum fine for those consuming ODS without the necessary quota permit from 500,000 yuan to 1 million yuan.

The amendment said companies that receive penalties for violating the regulation will have their misconduct included in their credit records, and the violations will be made public.

The revised regulation also added some clauses concerning incidental ODS generation, which was not covered previously.

Enterprises that generate ODS incidentally in their production process should not discharge the substances directly, the amendment said, and should instead dispose of them in an environmentally friendly manner. If they do not, they will be subject to a penalty of 100,000 yuan to 500,000 yuan, and their operations will be suspended if they fail to rectify the problem.

Zhang Yujun, former head of the Foreign Environmental Cooperation Center at the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said the clause about incidental ODS generation meant that all sectors that generate ODS are now covered by the regulation.

Companies that produce and consume large quantities of ODS and those that generate a large amount of the substances incidentally should install automated monitoring devices, and the devices should be connected to the monitoring systems of environmental authorities, the amendment said. Those breaching that rule will be fined up to 200,000 yuan.

Zhang said the stipulation aimed to address the great difficulties authorities had in unearthing the illegal production of some ODS.

In a campaign launched in 2019 to crack down on ODS violations, the ministry shut down an illegal workshop that produced CFC-11, a kind of ODS, and found 16 enterprises illegally consuming the substance, he said. It learned that illegal production of CFC-11, which needs very low investment, a small space and simple technology, was hard to discover.

Researchers collect greenhouse gases at an atmospheric comprehensive research station in the Xizang autonomous region on May 23, 2023. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

To address the problem, Zhang said the ministry established a national supervision platform based on existing automated monitoring facilities in factories that produce CCL4, an ODS that is a raw material for CFC-11 production.

Thanks to the platform, all CCL4 production procedures were brought under supervision, he said, helping to prevent illicit flows of CCL4 and effectively curbing illegal production of CFC-11.

The automated monitoring provision in the amended regulation, based on the ministry's experiences in running that platform, will help the country manage controlled ODS in a more precise manner, Zhang said.

The amendment changed the definition of ODS to allow potent heat-trapping gases known as hydrofluorocarbons — used to replace some ODS — to be covered by the regulation.

Finalized in 1987, the Montreal Protocol came into effect in 1989. Parties then agreed on the Kigali Amendment to the protocol in 2016, which aimed to gradually reduce the consumption and production of HFCs, based on the consensus that they are powerful greenhouse gases.

ODS are widely used in foam-blowing agents and refrigerants. HFCs, which do not deplete the ozone layer nearly as much, are used as replacements for some of them.

Hu Jianxin, a professor with the College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at Peking University, said China has made significant progress in reducing ODS to protect the ozone layer.

It has published a series of documents to support the implementation of the 2010 regulation on ODS, including lists of controlled ODS and ODS subject to import and export control, he said.

To date, Hu said, China's reduction in ODS accounts for over half of the total reduction contributed by developing nations.

Researchers record the atmospheric monitoring data from a monitoring device in Yunnan province, on March 23, 2023. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

According to an assessment report compiled by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme, the ozone layer over the world's mid-latitude region is expected to recover to 1980 values by around 2045, he said.

Making the regulation cover HFCs means China will make an even greater contribution to reducing emissions of the powerful greenhouse gases, Hu said.

China is a major producer, consumer and exporter of HFCs, with Chinese-made refrigeration and air conditioning equipment containing the heat-trapping gases exported to most countries around the world, he said.

By promoting green alternatives to HFCs in sectors such as refrigeration, fire control and semiconductors, Hu said China will have a profound impact on the global reduction of HFC emissions.

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Zhuang Xiangning, deputy director of the quality, safety and environmental protection department at the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation, said China tops the world in the production of fluorochemicals and can produce almost all fluorochemical products.

He said it currently produces and supplies 70 percent of HFCs in the world.

Zhao Yingmin, vice-minister of ecology and environment, said China will fully implement a quota-based HFC management mechanism to ensure it can realize its target of controlling HFCs this year.

With data verification accomplished in the HFCs sector, the country has worked out a plan to cap the production and consumption of such substances and will distribute the quotas this year, he said in September at an event celebrating the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer.

Zhao said China has phased out roughly 628,000 metric tons of ozone-depleting substances, and the country's efforts to phase out ODS from 1991 to 2020 avoided the emission of greenhouse gases equivalent to 26 billion tons of carbon dioxide.

Contact the writer at houliqiang@chinadaily.com.cn