Global warming and ozone depletion potentials caused by emissions from HFC and CFC banks due to structural damage

Abstract

Fluorocarbons are an important class of greenhouse gases, currently responsible for a non-negligible share of global emissions. CFCs are known to be linked to the depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer. CFCs and HFCs also have a high GWP. The Montreal Protocol banned the production of CFCs and, more recently, the Kigali Amendment established the phase-out of high-GWP HFCs over the coming decades. CFCs and HFCs banks are expected to continue generating emissions during the present century, however. These banks consist of CFCs and HFCs contained mainly in insulation foams, HVAC and refrigeration systems. It has been demonstrated in practice that structural and other damages caused by natural hazards (NHs) can lead to emissions from such banks. Conventional approaches that include NHs in the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of buildings focus mainly on the embodied carbon metric, usually examined as part of the economic input–output procedure. These issues are not considered in LCAs currently applied to Disaster Waste Management. Such methods do not take into account the potential release of high-GWP compounds in the event of extensive damage or collapse, so the related carbon footprint may generally be underestimated. Since CFCs are banned in the vast majority of manufacturing processes, their ozone depletion potential (ODP) based on such an approach is close to zero. This paper describes a recently-proposed framework that incorporates the concept of content release ozone depletion potential (CODP), based on analytical tools that enable this ODP to be taken into account using current methods for conducting LCAs on buildings that include NHs. A case study conducted to test the proposed framework is also reported.