EIA's Atmospheric Campaign is the cutting edge of international efforts to redress the two greatest environmental threats in history – the destruction of the planetary ozone layer and climate change.   Through investigations and activities within the Montreal Protocol, EIA is leading the international effort to eliminate halogenated gases containing chlorine and fluorine that are responsible for the Antarctic and Arctic ozone holes as well as one sixth of all global warming.

Since 1987 EIA has led efforts to phase out industrial gases that deplete the ozone layer and act as powerful global warming agents.  Our worldwide undercover investigations of the lucrative illegal trade in chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) – used in refrigerants and banned under the 1987 Montreal Protocol treaty – have helped to close down much of this underground trade. 

Beyond our ongoing investigations into the illegal chemical trade, EIA was the principle catalyst for the successful effort to accelerate the global phase-out of HCFCs (hydrochlorofluorocarbons) under the Montreal Protocol in 2007.  EIA’s is presently leading international efforts to phase-out HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons), the current replacement compounds of choice for ozone depleting substances. These widely used and intentionally manufactured commercial refrigerant gases are hundreds to thousands of times more powerful in warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide (CO2), leading to their characterization as “super” greenhouse gases (GHG).

Soaring demand in developing nations has made HFCs the fastest growing source of GHGs with projected emissions that threaten to negate other efforts to avert acute climate change.  Because an HFC phase-out could prevent 6-7 years worth of equivalent total annual global GHG emissions, and be achieved at a fraction of the cost required for similar mitigation under a UNFCCC/Kyoto Protocol approach, EIA is working closely with like-minded nations, industries and NGOs to eliminate HFCs in favor of increasingly widespread and viable alternatives. 

EIA is using three mutually reinforcing strategies to achieve an HFC phase-out:

• sectoral efforts focused on HFC use in supermarkets and for mobile air conditioning that represent over 50% of global HFC use;
• facilitating direct transitions from HCFCs to climate friendly alternatives that bypass HFCs; and,
• agreement on an amendment to the Montreal Protocol that will initiate a global phase-out of HFCs as was accomplished for CFCs and is currently underway for HCFCs.

Our pioneering work has received recognition and awards from many quarters, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the United Nations Environment Program.
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EIA’s campaign and advocacy work highlighting the role of refrigerant HCFCs and HFCs as powerful global warmers has influenced U.S. leadership in efforts to accelerate the international phaseout of these dangerous chemicals.

In the mid 1990’s, EIA exposed a major illegal trade network, involving CFCs and cocaine, in Florida. An inter-agency task force, headed by the Department of Justice, was subsequently established to clamp down on CFC smuggling into and within the United States. EIA was the primary NGO partner.

In recent years EIA has exposed the role of U.S. strawberry producers in stockpiling and resisting phaseout of methyl bromide – a toxic fumigant and highly potent ozone-depleting chemical. EIA’s public education and advocacy work on the dangers of skin cancer due to ozone layer depletion helped to limit U.S. exemptions to a 2005 international deadline for phasing out methyl bromide use.
2005: [ read report ]
2006: [ read report ]