Mal Washer (Moore, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Compliments to the members for Moreton and Flinders for speaking on the Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management Amendment Bill 2010. This is a very good piece of legislation. The bill makes four general amendments to the Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management Act 1989. Firstly, the bill introduces a civil penalties regime and provides for the establishment of an infringement notice scheme. The introduction of a civil penalties and infringement notice regime will provide greater flexibility in providing appropriate enforcement. Currently the act contains criminal offences or suspension or cancellation of licences for breaches. Holders of various permits and licences are required to meet certain conditions, and a breach of condition can only result in a suspension or cancellation of the licence. This can be an overly harsh and inappropriate outcome, depending on the circumstances.

Secondly, the bill clarifies the powers of inspectors, particularly in relation to the collection and testing of ozone-depleting substances and synthetic greenhouse gases and search of electronic data storage. It also provides for inspectors to be assisted in exercising their powers. This can be particularly important where tactical specialists are required. Thirdly, the bill improves the procedures for dealing with evidential material, including the seizure, retention, return or forfeiture of that material, and providing for enhanced testing arrangements. Fourthly, it clarifies the purposes of the ozone account, which is a special account established by the act to support the development of evidence based policy by allowing research to be funded from the account.

The Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management Act 1989 enacts Australia’s international obligations under the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Montreal protocol sets out each country’s obligations to phase out the use of ozone-depleting substances. It is predicted that if all countries continue to meet their obligations under the Montreal protocol the ozone layer will recover to pre-1980 levels by around the middle of the century in the mid-latitudes and in the period 2060 to 2075 over the Antarctic.

Ozone is actually one of the more noxious pollutants of the troposphere, the lowest 12 kilometres or so of the atmosphere. It is also a potent greenhouse gas. However, the fact that most of it lies in the stratosphere, which has the highest concentrations, 20 and 35 kilometres above the ground, gives it beneficial effects. The ozone layer absorbs about 97 to 99 per cent of the sun’s high-frequency UV light, light which is potentially damaging to life on earth. And it is thought that every one per cent decrease in the earth’s ozone layer is projected to increase the amount of UV light exposure to the lower atmosphere by two per cent. Over the earth’s surface the ozone layer’s average thickness is about three millimetres.

In the stratosphere, formation of ozone, O3, is initiated by the action of UV light on oxygen molecules, O2, which then split into highly reactive oxygen atoms or O. Once released, an oxygen atom can combine with an inactive oxygen molecule to make ozone. Ozone itself goes through a cycle of reactions. It also absorbs UV, breaking it into constituent parts only to form again. After many trips around this cycle, the end comes when an ozone molecule encounters a free oxygen atom and is converted back into ordinary oxygen. Ozone is catalysed by a series of highly reactive elements and molecules known as free radicals. They speed up the destruction of ozone and constantly re-emerge to trigger another round of reactions. This is why trace constituents such as chlorine atoms can have such marked effects on ozone levels. As the member who spoke previously said, it is estimated that one chlorine atom can destroy up to 100,000 ozone molecules.

The catalysts in the stratosphere come from the breakdown of gases which percolate up from the lower atmosphere. For example, chlorine methane, given off by rotting plants and burning vegetation, is a natural source of stratospheric chlorine. However, this supply has been dwarfed by synthetic compounds such as chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs. Ironically, certain greenhouse gases such as methane or carbon dioxide mitigate the damage caused by CFCs. By trapping heat in the lower atmosphere, the stratosphere is cooled, slowing the rate of ozone destruction.

The destruction of the ozone layer became of particular relevance to Australia when the ‘ozone hole’ was detected above Antarctica in 1985. The ozone hole is not actually a hole but a region of exceptionally depleted ozone in the stratosphere over the Antarctic that happens at the beginning of the Southern Hemisphere spring. The hole was observed as being at its largest on 24 September 2006 when it was 29.5 million square kilometres. The maximum ozone hole area for 2009 was 24 million square kilometres on 17 September. So why did the hole form here? Destructive free radicals such as the chlorine atom can become locked up in a more stable reservoir of molecules such as hydrogen chloride. They are then unavailable for reactions that destroy ozone. But if something releases the chlorine into its active form again, then it can set about destroying ozone. This is thought to be the reason behind the special chemistry of the ozone hole over Antarctica.

Due in part to Antarctica’s land mass, winter around the South Pole is especially cold. The sun disappears for six months, and the rapid cooling that results sets up strong westerly winds that swirl around the pole up in the stratosphere. The stable polar vortex isolates the air within it and leads to some odd chemistry. The air becomes cold enough—around 80 degrees centigrade below freezing—for icy particles to form, known collectively as polar stratospheric clouds. Reactions on the surfaces of these icy particles convert stable chlorine reservoir molecules such as hydrogen chloride into compounds that rapidly are broken up by sunlight. When the sunlight returns in the spring there is a burst of active chlorine radicals, hence the presence of the Antarctic ozone hole every spring.

It is also now thought that the hole is responsible for the reduced uptake of CO2 by the Southern Ocean. In most ocean regions the increase in atmospheric CO2 levels has led to an increase in CO2 absorption; not in the Southern Ocean, however, where carbon absorption has flattened out. Although the Southern Ocean is a major carbon sink, taking up around 15 per cent per cent of CO2 emissions, it is thought that between 1987 and 2004 the uptake was reduced by up to nearly 2½ billion tonnes. This is equivalent to the amount of carbon that all the world’s oceans absorb in a year. The reason for this is wind.

The decreasing stratospheric ozone and rising greenhouse gases are altering the radiation balance of the earth’s atmosphere. This in turn alters and strengthens the westerly winds that blow over the Southern Ocean. The stronger surface winds are enhancing the circulation of the ocean, raising carbon-rich waters from the deep to the surface. This then reduces the capability of the surface water to absorb atmospheric carbon. Also, perhaps more troubling is the higher carbon levels in the shallow waters, as this make these waters more acidic due to the formation of carbonic acid, and it is in these shallow waters where most organisms that require calcium carbonate for shells dwell. The chain of causation in earth’s ecosystem is very complex. It is unlikely that anyone predicted that increasing our emissions of CFCs would have affected our uptake of carbon dioxide by our Southern Ocean.

Our legislation which regulates our actions that may cause harm or adverse disruption to our ecosystems must be amended over time to ensure that they remain effective. In 2003 the coalition amended the act to include synthetic greenhouse gases that had started to be used as alternatives with the phasing-out of the ozone-depleting substances during the 1990s. Whilst ozone benign, some of the alternatives brought in were potent greenhouse gases, such as the hydrofluorocarbons and the perfluorocarbons. As this bill improves the effectiveness of the act, I commend it to the House.

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