Friday, Jul 24, 2026 The claims desk. Receipts included. POWERED BY LENZ
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SCIENCE

The Claim

Factories in China are destroying the Earth's ozone layer.

The Short Version

The evidence does not support the idea that Chinese factories are currently destroying the Earth’s ozone layer. China was a major source of illegal CFC-11 emissions in the mid-2010s, and some industrial ozone-depleting emissions still occur, but enforcement sharply reduced the known surge. The best available evidence says the ozone layer is recovering and that this episode did not significantly derail that recovery.

Caveats

  • The claim generalizes from specific chemicals, regions, and years to all factories in China.
  • Present-tense wording is misleading: the best-documented illegal emissions surge was largely curtailed after 2018-2019.
  • "Destroying the Earth's ozone layer" overstates the impact; authoritative sources report continued global ozone recovery.

The Receipts

  1. Is the ozone hole causing climate change?

    NASA Science

  2. Banks, emissions, and environmental impacts of China's ozone depletion substances and hydrofluorocarbon substitutes during 1980–2020

    ScienceDirect

  3. Banks, emissions, and environmental impacts of China's ozone-depleting substances and hydrofluorocarbons

    PubMed

  4. Falling CFC-11 emissions offer a reprieve for the ozone layer

    Chemical & Engineering News (ACS)

  5. UN to support China in ending production of ozone-depleting substances by 2030

    UN News

  6. China – Additional reported information under decision XXXVI/2

    Ozone Secretariat - UNEP

  7. Two additional regions of Asia were sources of banned ozone‑destroying chemicals

    NOAA Research

  8. UN to Support China to Phase out Ozone-Depleting Substances in Major Climate and Ozone Victory

    UN Environment Programme

  9. Rogue emissions of ozone-depleting chemical pinned to China

    Nature

  10. Ozone-Depleting Substances

    US Environmental Protection Agency

+ 24 more sources — see the full list on Lenz

Filed Under

ChinaEarth's Ozone Layer

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