Vietnam is forecast to need about $20 million to completely stop using hydro-chloro-fluoro-carbons (HCFCs) in the next 15 to 20 years as part of efforts to protect the ozone layer, an official of Hydrometeorology and Climate Change Department (HCCD) said at a press briefing in Hanoi Sept 16. The HCCD has worked with the World Bank (WB) to map out a national plan on HCFC elimination aims to reduce the use of this substance by 10% by 2015, HCCD Deputy Head Nguyen Khac Hieu was cited by the Voice of Vietnam Radio as saying. Vietnam has succeeded in eradicating some substances depleting the ozone layer such as chloro-fluoro-carbons (CFC), Halon and Carbon Tetrachloride (CTC) since ratifying the Montreal Protocol in early 1994. The country has also issued policies and taken measures to strictly control the import-export of all substances that are harmful to the ozone layer as well as has prohibited CFC-used equipment. Up to 500 tons of CFCs and 3.8 tons of Halon, which are 10,000 times stronger than CO2 in causing the greenhouse effect, had been eradicated completely in Vietnam by Jan 2010, Hieu added. Under the Montreal Protocol signed in Canada in 1987, CFC and Halon were eradicated by January 2010 and HCFCs will be phased out completely by 2040. (vovnews.vn Sept 16, vietnamplus.vn Sept 16)
