China Moves to Freeze Production of Climate Super-Pollutants But Lacks a System to Monitor Emissions

China has begun to curb the production of hydrofluorocarbons. These highly potent greenhouse gasses are used as chemical refrigerants in household and automobile appliances. It is required to do so under an international agreement. 

The Chinese government announced the policy late last year. It is a significant step forward in global efforts to combat climate change. The news comes amid ongoing challenges in stopping the emissions of HFC23, the most powerful greenhouse gas among HFCs, which is now officially banned in China.

The world’s largest producer and exporter of HFCs, China froze new production capacity for five of the most widely used HFCs on Jan. 1. The new policy was announced in a circular issued by the country’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment on Dec. 28. 

This production cap is two years ahead the mandatory production freeze required by the Kigali Amendment of the Montreal Protocol. The protocol, which was signed by more than 120 countries and joined by China on Sept. 15, requires a production freeze. The agreement requires China to freeze all HFC production capacities by 2024, before gradually phasing down production to 20 percent by 2045.

The Kigali Amendment also required China to destroy or otherwise eliminate all HFC-23 emissions “to the extent practicable” by Sept. 15 of last year.  Many of the HFC-23 emission-destroying incinerators installed in China are older than two decades. 

However, individual companies are responsible for annual operating and maintenance costs, and it’s unclear if plant owners in China continue to run the pollution control devices or if they simply vent HFC-23 into the atmosphere.  

HFCs are climate “super-pollutants” used in air conditioning and refrigeration that, on a pound-for-pound basis, have hundreds to thousands of times greater warming potential than carbon dioxide. Global HFC emissions can add another half-degree to the atmosphere’s warming if left unchecked. 

China’s new policy calling for production freezes covers just five of the 11 HFCs produced in the country. The five HFCs that are targeted by China’s environment ministry make up more than 75 percent, according to Energy Foundation China. This nonprofit funds projects to combat climate change.   

“This sends a clear signal to the market and to industry that China is taking actions to start to freeze these HFCs and to promote the transition to low GWP (global warming potential) refrigerants,” Han Wei, industry program deputy director for Energy Foundation China, said.

China and other countries are placing increasing focus on reducing emissions of HFCs and other “non-CO2” greenhouse gases such as methane, nitrous oxide and perfluorocarbons to combat climate change. 

Carbon dioxide is the primary cause of climate change, based on the amount of carbon dioxide that has been emitted. However, other gases can be just as harmful for the climate in the same quantities as CO2. These more potent greenhouse gases can be reduced in order to reduce climate change in the short term. It can also be used to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.       

The Chinese government’s current Five-Year Plan, adopted last March, stated for the first time that efforts should be made to control “other greenhouse gases such as methane, hydrofluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons.”

Chemical plants in China produce 70 percent of the world’s HFCs and roughly half of the country’s production is exported, Han said. China’s production dominance means efforts to curb HFCs in the country will have an outsized impact on global HFC production and emissions as the chemicals slowly leak from air conditioners and other appliances into the atmosphere.  

Alex Hillbrand, an HFC specialist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, called China’s new policy a “leadership step” and one he hopes other countries will follow. 

“There could still be growth, but any growth that we see post 2022 in China is going to be a lot smaller in China than it would have been,” said Hillbrand.

Tad Ferris is the senior counsel for the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development. This environmental advocacy group is based in Washington. He noted that not all HFCs were included and that expansions could still be granted to those that were. Chemical companies that have already received environmental assessments for new production approval by government agencies can still expand their operations. Ferris also pointed out that the current circular is not part of any official government regulation. This would be more weighty.

“There is solid progress here,” Ferris said. “It’s good and it’s welcome, but it’s not unexpected.”

While China is ahead of schedule on five HFCs, the country may still be struggling to meet last September’s mandate to eliminate emissions of HFC-23, the most potent of the HFCs as a greenhouse gas.  

HFC-23 is 14600 times more efficient at warming the atmosphere that carbon dioxide. The chemical is an unwanted byproduct from the production of hydrochlorofluorocarbon-22 (HCFC-22), a chemical used as a refrigerant and a component in Teflon and other products.

In 2020, Nature Communications published a study that found global HFC-23 emission levels were higher than ever in 2018. This was despite the fact that government policies should have eliminated these emissions. The study suggested that China was the most likely source of a large portion of the emissions due to the country’s role as the leading producer of HCFC-22.

Inside Climate News’ 2021 investigation into chemical plants in China found that HFC-23 emissions from HCFC-22 plants fell outside of a recent government subsidy program. If these plants are destroyed, the annual HFC-23 emissions could be as high or higher than the annual greenhouse gas emissions from 29 million cars.

Hu Jianxin is a professor of environmental science at Peking University in Beijing. He conducted a survey of all known HCFC-22-producing countries last year. This included visits to multiple plants.  The vast majority said they were voluntarily destroying or otherwise eliminating HFC-23 emissions prior to China’s entry into the Kigali Amendment. Independent air monitoring could be used to verify outsiders. China currently does not have a robust network of air monitoring for HFC-23.  

Prior to China’s entry into the Kigali Amendment, Hu and researchers with the Foreign Environmental Cooperation Office (FECO) of China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment conducted a comprehensive study funded by Energy Foundation China on how the country could ensure it was meeting HFC-23 emission reduction requirements under the Kigali Amendment. The August 31 report recommended the establishment of a monitoring, reporting and verification system, as well as supporting research to recycle HFC-23 into valuable chemical fuelstocks.  

China will have a monitoring network for HFCs and ozone-depleting substances in place by the end of this year, Guo Xiaolin (deputy director at FECO), said during a workshop on HFC 23 hosted by Energy Foundation China & FECO on November 19.

The United States has not yet signed the Kigali Amendment. However, there is bipartisan support and industry support for ratification and it may be considered soon in the Senate. The United States has two plants that produce HCFC-22. One of these plants already reduces its HFC23 emissions. The other plant, located in Louisville, Kentucky, and owned by chemical company Chemours destroys more of its HFC-22 emissions but releases the rest. These emissions have a significant impact on the climate. They are equivalent to approximately 700,000 cars emitting greenhouse gases annually. Chemours will have to eliminate 99.9 percent of its HFC23 emissions beginning in October according to an EPA regulation.

It can be expensive to control the emissions from chemical plants in China or anywhere else. This requires both constant monitoring and effective reporting and enforcement capabilities at both the national and local levels. China led a concerted, and ultimately successful, effort to locate and shut down chemical plants that were illegally releasing CFC-11, which is a potent greenhouse-gas that also depletes the atmosphere’s ozone. After scientists outside China discovered elevated levels of the banned pollutant, the government took action.

Hu and other researchers from China are working to find ways of recycling HFC-23, rather than committing China in a potentially costly game with cat and mouse over HFC23 emissions for years to follow. 

A small percentage of HFC-23 emission is currently captured and used in etching in semiconductor manufacturing as well as in the pharmaceutical industry. Researchers at the Zhejiang research Institute of [the]Chemical Industry has been working for over a decade to convert waste HFC-23 to valuable HCFC-22. Recently, a pilot scale test was completed.

Hu stated that industrial scale conversion of HFC23 to HCFC-22 could be possible this year.

“If they really save money, I think all the companies can install this technology,” Hu said.  “I think this is a sustainable way to deal with [HFC-]23.”

Hu also warns HFC-23 production may not be the sole source of HFC-22 emissions. Recent studies have shown that new chemical refrigerants, which were developed by Honeywell as climate-friendly alternatives to HFCs, may partially degrade into HFC-23 as the chemicals they are. Studies have shown that HFC-23 emissions due to the degradation of other chemicals are relatively low. Hu suggested that HFC 23 may also be produced in other chemical manufacturing processes.

As of 2018, the most recent year for which data is available,  there was a tremendous gap between the amount of HFC-23 emissions that were reported from HCFC-22 production facilities and the larger amount that scientists were detecting in the atmosphere. 

Avipsa Mahaapatra, the climate campaign lead at the Environmental Investigation Agency (a non-profit environmental organization based out of Washington), said that the new research on potential sources of HFC23 emissions from other manufacturing processes merits further investigation.

“A lot of these gases are new, and we don’t know what the production pathways look like,” Mahapatra said.  “Each company and their government is therefore responsible to ensure that it’s not just the HCFC-[22] by-production that is being controlled, but it’s anything and everything related to HFC-23.”

Hu, a Peking University professor, said that HFC-23 is a top priority because of its enormous climate impact.  

“We will try to figure out this chemical and eliminate emissions as much as possible,” he said.