Mexico. The North American country published remarkable advances in the elimination of substances that damage the ozone layer, according to the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, eliminating 99% of the consumption of these substances.
There the use of chlorofluorocarbons, carbon tetrachloride, halons and methyl bromide has been completely eliminated and they are advancing in the process of eliminating the consumption of hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), informed the Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources, Rafael Pacchiano Alamán, when leading the ceremony of cancellation of the postal stamp commemorating the 30th Anniversary of the Montreal Protocol.
These actions, taken together, mean the reduction of practically 99% of the consumption of these substances since the maximum registered in our country in 1989.
He indicated that the Government of the Republic undertook to develop the national plan for the elimination of HCFCs, through which the use of substances that damage the ozone layer in the production of aerosols, refrigerators, polyurethane foams and solvents, pending only the elimination of these compounds in the service sector.
Pacchiano Alamán indicated that today there is an advance of 55% reduction in the elimination of HCFC consumption, being that Mexico's commitment in the Montreal Protocol is to reach a reduction of 50% in the year 2020, so he assured that in the current administration we will be exceeding the goals for the year 2022, which is the elimination of 67.5% of HCFC.
The elimination plan includes an ambitious training programme coordinated jointly with the Ministry of Public Education and the National Polytechnic Institute. It includes the updating of teachers in these topics, as well as the equipment of training centers nationwide to ensure the quality and performance of this program.
He specified that all these actions are aligned with the policies formulated in the National Climate Change Strategy and the Paris Agreement, ratified by Mexico last September 2016, with which Mexico joins the efforts to avoid global warming, promoting the growth of clean energy.
The federal official said that our country has not limited itself to the elimination of substance consumption and the technological transformation of the different sectors, but has carried out the most ambitious project of destruction of ozone-depleting substances among developing countries, eliminating 113 tonnes of these substances in the last two years.
"This has meant avoiding emissions by 970 thousand tons of CO2 equivalent, which would mean the withdrawal of 240 thousand vehicles for a year in the Metropolitan Area of the Valley of Mexico," he said.
