Second Reading Speech: Ozone Protection and Synthetic Gas Management Reform (closing the hole in the ozone layer) Bill 2022

This bill is part of a package of legislation to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management Program.

For more than three decades, ever since the ozone crisis emerged, this has been one of our most important pieces of environmental policy.

It regulates the manufacture, import, export, use and disposal of ozone depleting substances and synthetic greenhouse gases –
And it implements our international obligations under the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. 

Kofi Annan, the former Secretary General of the United Nations, described the Montreal Protocol as ‘perhaps the single most successful environmental agreement to date’. 

And when you look at the progress it’s overseen – taking us from the depths of fear in the 1980s, to global agreement and action, to relative confidence today – it’s hard to disagree with his assessment. 

Australians of a certain age will remember the ozone crisis as it emerged in the public imagination.

It was a formative event for many people, which clarified our changing relationship with the natural world. 

It was also one of the first truly global environmental moments – when we realised just how interconnected we all were as human beings; and when we understood our immense power to alter this planet, our home. 

And what made it even more unsettling – that this destructive power came from some of our most familiar domestic appliances. 

In 1974, scientists discovered that chemicals used in cans like hairspray and shaving cream – chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons, CFCs – were floating into the atmosphere and breaking down the ozone layer. 

This was very bad news – because the ozone layer is what protects us from the awesome violence of the sun. 

As a NASA paper put it, without the ozone layer, ‘the sun’s intense UV radiation would sterilise the earth’s surface’. 

Scientists knew the situation was bad, but it wasn’t until the 1980s that they learned just how bad it was. 

In 1985, a group of physicists published a paper in Nature, showing a drastic collapse in ozone coverage above Antarctica.

The results were so shocking that one of the authors, stationed in the Antarctic, thought his instruments were broken. 

As news of the ozone hole spread from scientific journals to the mainstream press, it created worldwide alarm. 

That’s because a degraded ozone layer could:

• massively increase the number of people with skin cancer
• give millions of people debilitating eye cataracts
• impede the life cycle of plants and agriculture
• reshape marine ecosystems
• and fundamentally alter the earth’s biochemical cycle.

When people discovered this, it produced an understandable panic, but crucially, it also produced an unprecedented global response. 

It’s fitting that we are introducing these bills in the aftermath of World Ozone Day on 16 September, which commemorates the signing of the Montreal Protocol, thirty five years ago.

Because the Montreal Protocol was a truly great achievement. 

People at the time may have understood the seriousness of our problem, but that didn’t mean they agreed on our response. 

There were countries that produced these chemicals, as well as appliances that used them, like fridges and air conditioners.

There were developing nations that wanted the option of producing them in the future, like wealthy countries had already done. 

And there were companies that didn’t want to accept that their products were causing a global catastrophe – and rejected the science outright. 

The genius of the Montreal Protocol was its ability to bring these groups together, to provide sceptical parties with an alternative to CFCs, and to establish a pathway forward that most people could live with. 

The Protocol showed that global environmental cooperation was possible.

It showed that we could overcome national self-interest and the tragedy of the commons.

And it showed that, through sensitive diplomacy, we could find rational answers to our most difficult collective problems. 

Proudly, Australia was in the original group of countries that supported the Protocol, in the face of initial opposition. 

And it was Bob Hawke and his Minister for the Environment, Graham Richardson, who moved to ratify the agreement immediately at home.

We did this in partnership with other leading countries, particularly in Scandinavia, but also the United States. 

The American President at the time, Ronald Reagan, wasn’t always the most enthusiastic environmentalist. 

But on this issue, he proved that cooperation could cut across political lines – and he helped secure the international agreement needed to land the Protocol. 

In 1987, twenty four nations signed on.

Today, every nation in the world – all 198 of them – are parties to the agreement. 

And most importantly, thanks to this collective global effort, the ozone layer is projected to recover by the middle of this century.

Because of the Montreal Protocol, the hole in the ozone layer is closing. 

Sometimes we don’t celebrate the crisis avoided, because it didn’t arrive – even if it was our hard work and planning that ensured it never did. 

But we should celebrate our success on the ozone layer … and we should reflect on it. 

If people ever feel despair – if they ever begin to feel hopeless – they should remember this: global action is possible. 

It’s not just possible, we’ve done it. We’re still doing it.

And it’s made a life changing difference. 

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, the Montreal Protocol will:

• prevent 443 million cases of skin cancer 
• save 2.3 million lives from that terrible disease
• and prevent 63 million people from developing eye cataracts.

And that’s just in the United States. 

The theme of this year’s World Ozone Day was ‘global cooperation protecting life on earth’.

It’s appropriate, because that’s what protecting life on earth requires: mature, good faith, truly international collaboration. 

Australia is a leader in this global effort, and we will continue to be – progressively phasing down our use of hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs.

Changes in this bill lay the foundation for future initiatives to reduce synthetic greenhouse gas emissions, and to help Australia meet its 2030 Paris target.

These amendments will allow for the implementation of additional measures to reduce these emissions, through regulations as appropriate. 

This could include actions to further reduce HFC emissions beyond what is currently in place under Australia’s HFC phase-down, or to reduce emissions of other gases controlled under the legislation.

This bill will support our ongoing program to protect the ozone layer.

What might be less known is how it also supports our efforts on climate change. 

That’s because HFCs are potent greenhouse gases, up to 4,000 times more harmful to the climate than carbon dioxide. 

By reducing HFCs, global action following the Montreal Protocol is estimated to prevent the equivalent of 420 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere by the year 2100.

This represents more than 10 years of present-day emissions from all human activities …

… And these reductions will prevent up to 0.4 degrees of global warming by the end of the century. 

Australia’s action on HFCs will be an important contributor to meeting our new emissions target of a 43 per cent reduction by 2030. 

We are on track to reach an 85 per cent reduction of HFC consumption by 2036.

Australia has a strong program to protect the ozone layer and manage synthetic greenhouse gases, and we need to keep it strong. 

And after years of delay on climate policy – and after natural disasters aggravated by global warming – Australians are demanding real action. 

That’s why, as one of our first actions in this 47th parliament, we passed legislation to increase Australia’s climate ambition.  

And I thank all the members of this House who offered constructive support to achieve this aim. 

The Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management Program is another example of what Australia can do to protect our climate and meet our ambitious emissions reduction targets. 

We have an extremely supportive industry here in Australia, who have worked alongside government to embrace alternative technologies and to manage environmentally harmful chemicals.

In the refrigeration and air conditioning sector, Australia has a world-leading approach to managing these substances from importation, through the supply chain and their use in the economy, and then at end-of-life. 

Australia has an established innovative product stewardship scheme, which collects used refrigerants and turns their potent greenhouse gases into harmless salty water.

We’re also partnering with industry to assist our neighbours in the Pacific, to help them phase-out chemicals that deplete the ozone layer and to improve the skills of their industry:

• We’re helping twelve small Pacific nations build their own capacity, by training local officers in industry best practice.
• We’re offering regional nations advice and guidance on how to move to alternative technologies and gases in the smoothest way possible.
• And we’re helping our neighbours build their own systems to report and meet their international obligations.

By working together, across national boundaries, we can move away from refrigerants that damage our shared environment.

Australia is committed to continued leadership on ozone layer protection. 

And this bill will make Australia’s program even stronger.

It will reduce administrative burden on businesses and make the legislation easier to understand, reducing the opportunities for unintentional non-compliance. 

It will also introduce measures to modernise and strengthen enforcement powers.

This bill will ensure that the Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management Act continues to provide protection for our environment and human health, and plays a strong role in Australia’s action on climate change.

That’s why I’m very proud to be introducing the legislation today.