The race to produce alternatives
After the British and then the French dropped their opposition to CFC and halon
controls, the EC found it could pursue a much more ambitious line in
international negotiations. Indeed by the early 1990s, trans-Atlantic roles had
almost reversed, with the US playing the part of the environmental ‘laggard’
with a visibly more united Community seeking to tighten up standards and
bring forward deadlines. At a UN meeting in November 1989, the EC proposed
a complete phase-out of CFCs by 2000, but Japan and the US said that they
needed more time to develop alternatives. Critics of the EC position claim that
on the more problematical issue of halons, for which alternatives were still not
apparent, positions were almost the reverse (Benedick, 1991, 143). The 2000
target was eventually adopted at the second CoP in London in June 1990.
However, industry on both sides of the Atlantic lobbied furiously to block
controls on HCFCs.