The Two Billion Tonne Climate Bomb: How to Defuse the HFC-23 Problem
China and India are expected to release vast amounts of the chemical hydroflourocarbon-23 (HFC-23) into the atmosphere, causing global greenhouse gas emissions to skyrocket.
HFC-23 – a by-product of the production HCFC-22, primarily used in air-conditioning and refrigeration – is 14,800 times more damaging to the climate than carbon dioxide (CO2).
Our investigators discovered that many Chinese and Indian facilities, despite having destruction technology readily available, are releasing or threatening to emit the by-product unless they receive additional financing to dispose of the chemicals.
