Plan to Aid Third World in Cutting CFC Use Opposed by Bush Officials

U.S. delegates to an international conference on chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) have been instructed to oppose a plan supported by European governments that would provide $100 million to developing nations to help them reduce the use of the ozone-depleting chemical, informed sources said Tuesday.

The plan is designed to encourage such modernizing giants as India and China to join a 1987 treaty calling for drastic reductions by the year 2000 of CFCs, a gas used widely for refrigeration, production of polystyrene and cleaning of computer parts.

China and India have ambitious plans to provide their citizens with refrigerators and other goods that use CFCs.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William K. Reilly and top State Department officials recommended that the United States support the plan, which was developed by a working group of treaty signatories in recent months, sources said.

But their recommendation was overridden by White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu and Office of Management and Budget Director Richard G. Darman, who oppose providing any additional funds outside existing programs of international organizations such as the World Bank, the sources said. The U.S. share of the fund would be $25 million over three years.

Efforts to preserve the stratospheric ozone layer that screens out harmful ultraviolet rays will be frustrated if the Third World does not curb its CFC use, scientists say.

According to sources, the proposal, expected to be introduced today, calls for a $100-million fund to help Third World industries that use CFCs convert to alternative chemicals, cover the extra costs of alternatives and identify additional ways to replace CFCs.