CFCS are chemicals that have been used for decades in air-conditioners and refrigerators. But they are also responsible for the ozone hole in the stratosphere. The 89 Montreal Protocol on Protecting the Ozone Layer laid down a timetable for phasing out CFCS and the West has almost stopped manufacturing it. But it still has millions of appliances for which CFCS are still used.
As soon as the US, which consumed 30 per cent of the worlds CFCS, stopped production, Russian and Chinese manufacturers spotted their opportunity. To discourage CFC usage, the US government imposed a steep tax on it. But that only served the smugglers since it drove the entire CFCS market in the US underground. All the smugglers had to do was to label the CFC as HCFC (hydrochlorofluorocarbons) and it was let through customs since the Montreal Protocol envisages a ban on HCFC only by 2030.
In 98, 30,000 tonnes of CFCS-valued at several hundred millions of dollars-were smuggled into the US and the European Union (EU). This is increasing rapidly as countries like India and China move towards phasing out the pollutant. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the monitoring agency for implementing the protocol, admits that CFC smuggling is a very serious problem. "In our efforts to fill the ozone hole, we have started seeing the development of another hole in the Montreal Protocol," says Rajendra Shende, head of the OzonAction Unit of the UNEP.
The US now has special detection equipment at all ports to check for CFCS. But most EU states dont. Some NGOS complain that certain EU rules encourage smugglers. They point to the Internal Processing Relief (IPR) regulation that allows import of CFCS into the EU for re-exports. "Companies ship CFCS into the EU, ostensibly under IPR for re-exports, but the consignments disappear on landing," says a Paris-based environmentalist. "And once India and China reach the stage of stopping the entire commercial production, monitoring will become much more difficult," says Shende.
The UNEP is helping countries, especially in the developing world, establish credible controls over CFC trade. It also plans to train customs officials from developing countries. The project for India is expected to start by end-2000 as the first serious cuts in CFC production will begin only then, creating the first opportunity for the smugglers. But the threat in the developing countries comes not just from smugglers. A bigger and more potential threat lies within their borders-industries that cheat on their obligations to phase out production.
The problem is especially serious in India because most CFC-producing plants here are "swing plants": they can produce both CFCS and HCFCS without any major changes in operations. All the four companies that produce CFCS in India will not shut down their plants but switch to HCFC production. These companies could initially export their CFC production to western markets. Later, as the West phases out CFC-using equipment, they could start selling their production within the country. In this situation, the Indian government will be hard pressed to ensure that the plants do not get tempted to produce CFCS and sell them on the black market. "For any developing country, especially one of the size of China or India, monitoring is a big problem. They do not have the resources of developed countries and their sheer size could undermine the monitoring," remarks an environmentalist.
The potential size of black markets within the Asian economies is several times the ones in the West. This is due to the Asian habit of not throwing away old but usable equipment. So, individuals and corporates would be tempted to use CFC-based ACs and chillers as long as they can be sure of the supplies, even if sourced from the illegal market. "Only if the entire system of monitoring and regulating can be put in place before the phase-out is completed will we have a real chance of tackling the problem," warns an environmentalist. Meanwhile, the ozone hole is only getting wider.
Tags