Bali Delegates Turn Focus to Greenhouse Gases

ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

The central question at this week's climate talks in Bali, Indonesia is how to limit greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide is the most common of these, but there are other more powerful greenhouse gases, which environmentalists would like to phase out.

NPR's Kathleen Schalch reports.

KATHLEEN SCHALCH: Let's start with a question: What international treaty has done the most to slow global warming? Here's a hint. It's not the Kyoto Protocol. Here's another hint.

(Soundbite of aerosol spraying)

SCHALCH: The answer is that it's called the Montreal Protocol. And it has virtually eliminated a class of chemicals called CFCs. CFCs were destroying the world's ozone layer. That's why countries agreed to faze them out. But international compliance expert Durwood Zaelke says it turns out something else was wrong with CFCs.

Mr. DURWOOD ZAELKE (Director, International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement): Molecule for molecule, they are thousands of times more powerful than CO2 at warming the planet.

SCHALCH: So the Montreal Protocol produced a huge benefit its framers never anticipated.

Mr. ZAELKE: The Montreal Protocol is doing 11 times more than we're asking the Kyoto Protocol to do in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

SCHALCH: But the Montreal Protocol has one major shortcoming as a greenhouse gas treaty - it only covers chemicals that damage the ozone layer. And there are some very powerful greenhouse gasses that don't. Some of these are now being manufactured to replace CFCs.

Mr. ALLAN THORNTON (President, Environmental Investigation Agency): This is a common household refrigerator. You could hear the chilling effect whirring around with a little fan there.

SCHALCH: That's Allan Thornton. He's president of the Washington-based Environmental Investigation Agency. He's peering into a refrigerator in the NPR kitchen.

Mr. THORNTON: 20 years ago, this fridge probably would have been powered by CFCs.

SCHALCH: Now, Thornton says, those CFCs are gone. But many new refrigerators and air conditioners contain replacement coolants made with chemicals called HFCs. They're escaping into the environment, and Thornton says that's a big problem.

Mr. THORNTON: HFCs are up to 12,000 times more warming than carbon dioxide.

SCHALCH: In other words, HFCs are as powerful as CFCs were. CFCs substitutes now account for up to 10 percent of man-made global warming, and scientists predict that figure will rise. Wealthy countries are clamping down on HFCs. Environmental groups, including Thornton's, would like them banned worldwide.

Mr. THORNTON: This is something that can be done easily and quickly and cost-effectively.

SCHALCH: But the Kyoto Protocol has produced an unintended consequence. Countries can reward each other for curbing greenhouse gasses. The more powerful those gasses, the bigger the payoff, so cutting HFC emissions is as especially lucrative. Thornton says that set up a perverse incentive.

Mr. THORNTON: So you have the Kyoto Protocol committing hundreds of millions of dollars already to capture these HFCs, which are really just being needlessly produced to get the carbon credits.

SCHALCH: In fact, nearly half the credits awarded to developing countries have been for HFC. China stands to make billions of dollars catching and destroying HFCs made as industrial by-products. It wants the credit program expanded. But environmentalists hope countries will eliminate some of the most harmful greenhouse gases, not just create incentives to destroy them.

Kathleen Schalch, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.