Ozone-depleting Chemicals

HC Deb 29 June 1990 vol 175 cc381-2W

Ms. Walley

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what information he has on the number of tonnes of ozone-depleting chemicals produced in each of the last five years.

Mr. Forth

My Department receives data from the European Commission on the production within the Community of various of the substances controlled under the Montreal protocol. The two United Kingdom manufacturers of these substances copy the data they supply to the Commission to my Department and the Department of the Environment on a commercially confidential basis.

My officials have recently received industry data showing that total production of methyl chloroform (1, 1, 1-Trichloroethane) in the main industrialised regions (Western Europe, United States of America, and Japan) for the years 1985–89 was (in '000 tonnes):

	Thousand tonnes
1985	588
1986	609
1987	627

	Thousand tonnes
1988	678
1989	717

My Department has no data on the production of HCFCs, or any other ozone-depleting substances.