Beyond CO2: Study Reveals Growing Importance of HFCs in Climate Warming

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Beyond CO2: Study Reveals Growing Importance of HFCs in Climate Warming

2009-06-29

12:09:09 am, by Pablo Edronkin, 628 words

Categories: ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY, Health and Medicine, Climate Change, Meteorology and Climatology, Social Sciences and Humanities, Hazardous Substances, Wastes and Contamination, Education, Ozone Layer Issues, Analysis, Reviews and Academic Issues, Geophysics, Nature-Related Lifestyles, Applied Computer Science

Beyond CO2: Study Reveals Growing Importance of HFCs in Climate Warming

Some of the substances that are helping to avert the destruction of the ozone layer could increasingly contribute to climate warming, according to scientists from NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory and their colleagues in a new study published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Under current regulations, the demand for HFCs is expected to increase globally. By 2050 total HFC usage in developing countries is projected to be as much as 800 percent greater than in developed countries and warm the climate as effectively as 5-9 billion tons of carbon dioxide. Credit: NOAA

The authors took a fresh look at how the global use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) is expected to grow in coming decades. Using updated usage estimates and looking farther ahead than past projections (to the year 2050), they found that HFCs - especially from developing countries - will become an increasingly larger factor in future climate warming.

"HFCs are good for protecting the ozone layer, but they are not climate friendly," said David W. Fahey, a scientist at NOAA and second author of the new study. "Our research shows that their effect on climate could become significantly larger than we expected, if we continue along a business-as-usual path."

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Tags: hfc, kyoto

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