China has received US$450 million from the Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol since 1992 for its efforts to phase out ozone-depleting substances.

The money is part of US$740 million approved by the fund to support China's efforts in this regard. The rest of the money will be offered to China as the phasing out proceeds, officials said.

The money already received is being used to support more than 200 projects designed for enterprises and several projects for industries such as the foam and automobile air conditioner production sectors, according to Song Xiaozhi, an official with the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).

The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was signed in 1987. It calls for the production and consumption of compounds that deplete the ozone layer to stop. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), widely marketed as Freon, are among the most well known of these substances.

The fund is a financial mechanism created to help developing countries meet the agreed incremental costs of fulfilling the protocol's control measures.

Song said China is planning to utilize more of the grant from the Multilateral Fund in fields like process agents and pharmaceutical aerosol. But she said they have yet to calculate how much money the applications will involve.

Song said with the help of the fund and measures taken by the Chinese government, the country has achieved remarkable results in stopping the production and consumption of ozone-depleting substances.

For example, the production of CFCs in China now stands at nearly 30,000 tons a year, down from 45,000 tons in 1999, when the country began phasing it out.

By 2010, as agreed by the Montreal Protocol, China will have completely stopped producing CFCs, Song said.

She said the implementation of the protocol has created hardships for related Chinese enterprises.

"Industries such as the refrigerator production sector had to be completely redesigned, from the supply of raw material to the manufacturing process," she said.

Such steps were painful in the early 1990s, when the production lines at some enterprises had only been used for a few years. However, the implementation has enhanced the development of a market catering for environmentally friendly products in China, she said.

Jia Feng, vice director of SEPA's Center for Environmental Education and Communication, said: "If it had not been for the implementation of the protocol, the technical upgrading of some related Chinese enterprises might have taken 20 or even 30 years."

(China Daily March 9, 2004)