NAIROBI - June 13, 1991 (GP) With less than one week to go before a crucial meeting in Nairobi of signatories to the Montreal Protocol, Greenpeace has highlighted the fact that nearly all the major ozone-destroying countries have failed to ratify the agreements to phase out ozone-destroying chemicals.
The Montreal Protocol is an international agreement, signed by 69 countries, which was designed to stop the depletion of the protective ozone layer.
Based on recent reports produced under the Protocol process, Greenpeace has determined that several countries are delaying implementation of the terms of the agreement:
o. As of April this year, only two countries had ratified
amendments to the Montreal Protocol which were agreed in London
last June. At least 20 countries must ratify the amendments
before they come into force.
o. The promised $240 million fund to assist developing
countries to protect the ozone layer stands at a paltry $9.4
million.
o. More than half of the countries which promised to submit
information on their 1986 consumption levels of ozone destroying
chemicals -- chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and halons -- have failed
to do so or have provided incomplete data. Four of these
countries are members of the European Community.
Recent reports from the Montreal Protocol Secretariat on the use of CFCs and halons provides a dramatic example of how some countries have even increased production of these chemicals since the Protocol was first signed in 1987:
o. Use of halons in the 12 European Community countries
increased by 27 percent between 1986 and 1989. Halons are up to
ten times more damaging to the ozone layer than the worst of the
CFCs.
The Montreal Protocol's failure to protect the ozone layer is being highlighted two months after the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) revealed that ozone layer depletion over northern latitudes was proceeding twice as fast as scientists had predicted.
The US's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that in the US alone, 200,000 more people will die from skin cancer over the next 50 years as a result of the increased ultraviolet radiation this will cause.
"Even after two attempts at negotiation, the Montreal Protocol is still a charter which sanctions the chemical industry's destruction of the ozone layer," said Greenpeace's Sheldon Cohen.
"It is, therefore, even more worrying to see that the terms of such a weak agreement are not being complied with. Something as essential for life on Earth as the ozone layer should not be negotiable."
Greenpeace is calling for an immediate end to production of all ozone- destroying substances. These include CFCs, halons, methyl chloroform and carbon tetrachloride, as well as hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs). Although HCFCs destroy the ozone layer, they are promoted by the chemical industry as replacements for other ozone destroyers.
Notes: The Third Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol is being held from 19-21 June in Nairobi.
CONTACT: Sheldon Cohen or Tracy Heslop
at Hotel Ambassadeur (Nairobi), Tel: 254 2 336803,
