16 September 2007Google News
A meeting of signatories to the Montreal Protocol could make a "historic gesture" by working simultaneously to restore the ozone layer and halt global warming, a UN official said in an interview published Saturday.
Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN program for the environment, told the daily Le Devoir the fight against global climate change and the fight to restore the ozone layer are linked.
The interview appeared ahead of a conference marking Sunday's 20th anniversary of signing of the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty seeking to end production of chemical compounds that contribute to ozone depletion.
"With the anniversary coming up, the enormous challenge has still not been met, and it offers the international community the chance to make rapid gains both concerning the ozone layer and global climate change," Steiner told the Montreal daily.
Haloalkane (HCFC) and Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) chemical compounds, once widely used as refrigerants and propellants in aerosol cans, have been largely curtailed by multilateral agreements in the Protocol.
CFC emissions opened a large hole in the ozone layer in the Earth's upper atmosphere, allowing more of the sun's harmful ultra-violet radiation to enter and raising the specter of increased cases of skin-cancer and eye cataracts.
If production of CFCs are halted and eliminated over the next 10 years the effect of global warming could be cut by 4.5 percent, Steiner said.
