Letter to the Braidwood Times

Earlier this month some 197 countries agreed to a deal to reduce emissions of factory-made hydrofluorocarbon gases (HFCs).

HFCs are reportedly 100,000 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as greenhouse gases and emissions have been increasing as sales of fridges and air conditioning have been increasing in developing economies such as China and India.

The reduction will be phased in with the US and Europe aiming to reduce the output of these gases by 85% by 2036 with China – the world’s worst – freezing their use by 2024.  A small group of less-developed countries will start the reduction in 2029.  

According to the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development,  the agreement is likely to result in “largest temperature reduction ever achieved by a single agreement”.

And according to the US Natural Resources Defense Council, the deal is “equal to stopping the entire world's fossil-fuel CO2 emissions for more than two years”.

Finally, according to the online Independent news site:

But keeping it in perspective, according to the IEA Clean Coal Centre, there are over 2300 coal-fired power stations worldwide (7000 individual units). Approximately 620 of these power stations are in China, so the bigger issue remains.

And the global warming trend continues, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:

“The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for August 2016 was the highest for August in the 137-year period of record, marking the 16th consecutive month of record warmth for the globe.”

Even in Australia the Bureau of Meteorology reports that, despite what seemed a cold and wet winter:

“Both maximum and minimum temperatures were above average for Australia during August, with minimum the more notable of the two.”