On 29 September 2021, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, together with the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, issued Announcement No. 44 of 2021, revising the China List of Ozone Depleting Substances Subject to Control. The update fulfills obligations under the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer and its amendments, and is issued under the Regulation on the Administration of Ozone Depleting Substances. The following nine classes of chemicals are now subject to strict control:
- Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
- Halons
- Carbon tetrachloride (CTC)
- Methyl chloroform
- Hydrobromofluorocarbons
- Bromochloromethane
- Methyl bromide
- Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs)
- Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) — newly added control category
To implement the phase-down commitments, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has recently published two prohibitions:
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A ban on the production of polyurethane foams using 1,1-dichloro-1-fluoroethane (HCFC-141b) as a blowing agent;
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A ban on the production of household refrigerators and freezers using hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) as refrigerants.
With the progressive elimination of HCFC-141b and HFCs in relevant products, China has entered a new phase of ozone-layer protection and greenhouse-gas mitigation.
