Korean Scientist Caught Secretly Emitting 'Ozone Layer Depleting' Gas in China

Ministry of Science and ICT Selects Professor Park Sun-young of Kyungpook National University for This Month's Science and Technology Award

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] Professor Park Sun-young of the Department of Earth System Sciences at Kyungpook National University, who revealed to the international community that China had secretly increased the use of banned ozone-depleting substances (chlorofluorocarbons), has been selected as the recipient of the Science and Technology Person of the Month Award for June, the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Research Foundation of Korea announced on the 1st.

The Ministry of Science and ICT stated that the selection was made in high recognition of her contributions to scientifically supporting the international community's efforts to respond to climate change.

The representative ozone-depleting substance, chlorofluorocarbon (CFC-11), has been completely banned from production and use since 2010 under the Montreal Protocol. The problem arose when, in 2018, it was reported to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Ozone Secretariats that CFC emissions were suddenly increasing again. The exact emission locations and amounts were not identified, causing significant concern in the international community.

Professor Park was the key figure who confirmed that this increase in CFC emissions was due to China and informed the international community. Based on high-precision, high-density CFC concentration data observed in real-time at the Gosan Observatory in Jeju Island and the Hateruma Island Observatory in Japan, she succeeded in tracking the emission areas and amounts of CFCs through simulation. Her research team revealed that since 2013, annual CFC emissions in eastern China had increased by more than 7,000 tons, accounting for 40-60% of the global increase in CFC emissions. They also confirmed that this sharp increase in CFC amounts was the result of new production and use not reported in 2018, publishing their findings in May 2019 in Nature. Follow-up research confirmed that by 2019, CFC emissions in eastern China had decreased to pre-2013 levels. These results were published in Nature in February 2021.

Professor Park said, “The series of research results demonstrate the significance of scientifically securing long-term and continuous observations of the atmospheric concentrations of chemical substances that raise the Earth's temperature and threaten the global environment, showing that such scientific data is crucial for the effective regulation and monitoring of harmful substances.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.