The Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management Act

Background

The Commonwealth Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management Act 1989 (the Act) controls the manufacture, import and export of all ozone depleting substances (ODS) and their synthetic greenhouse gas (SGG) replacements. It also controls imports of refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment containing an HFC or HCFC refrigerant and grants the Commonwealth the power to create a nationally consistent system to control the end-uses of these harmful gases.

Impact on refrigerant market

Under the Act all licences to import or export ozone depleting substances carry a condition that the licensee must only import or export the substance from a country that has ratified the Montreal Protocol and the relevant subsequent Amendments. To help facilitate this, the Minister must maintain a Register of Montreal Protocol Countries the substances for which those countries are to be treated as a Montreal Protocol country.

The Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management Regulations 1995 (as amended in 2005) contain controls relating to: import/export/manufacture licensing; manufacture and disposal of scheduled substances; refrigeration and air-conditioning; methyl bromide; and fire protection.

Latest & Next steps

The regulations are likely to be broadened in the future to include other end uses of ozone depleting substances and synthetic greenhouse gases - including the aerosol, solvents and foams sectors which are currently regulated by state and territory governments.