By Marty Logan
MONTREAL, Mar 27 2004 (IPS)

The hole in the ozone layer risks looming larger after the world community agreed Friday to permit the United States and 10 other northern countries to continue using a pesticide that was supposed to be off-limits from 2005.

The meeting was called after nations failed to agree last year on what exemptions should be granted to the northern nations for using the pesticide, methyl bromide, in instances where it was deemed critically important.

Washington had wanted approval to produce and use methyl bromide until 2007, while the European Union (EU) argued the exemptions should be granted for just one year. According to EU officials, technically and economically feasible alternatives to methyl bromide could come on- stream after 12 months.

Delegates decided late Friday, after the meeting’s translators had retired for the night, to grant the northern states a one-year exemption, but not to commit to amounts for the following years. In fact, they tightened the requirements for future exemptions.

The northern countries will now be allowed to use an amount equal to more than 50 percent of all the methyl bromide consumed by 34 developed nations in 2001, and nearly three-quarters of that used by developing nations the same year. The push for exemption was led by the United States, whose request accounted for two-thirds of the total.

Methyl bromide is classed as an ozone-depleting substance because it damages the stratospheric layer that protects people, plants and animals from solar radiation, which can produce skin cancer and eye cataracts.

The Argentine delegation pushed hard during the three-day gathering to grant some leeway to developing countries that are ahead of schedule in reducing their use of methyl bromide, which farmers use to kill pests on strawberries, tomatoes, cut flowers and many other crops. The pesticide is also used in meat and vegetable processing.

The debates took place during the first extraordinary meeting of countries that signed on to the 1987 Montreal Protocol. The Protocol added teeth to the 1985 Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, widely viewed as the world’s most successful environmental treaty. It covers some 100 chemicals, including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

According to the Protocol, developing nations (because they contributed much less to the problem of ozone depletion) had to freeze their use of methyl bromide in 2002, and then reduce it by 20 percent by 2005 and 100 percent by 2015. Developed countries previously agreed to cut methyl bromide by 25 percent by 1999 (compared to 1991 levels), 50 percent by 2001, 70 percent by 2003 and 100 percent by Jan. 1 2005.

“The expectations (for the development of alternatives to methyl bromide) perhaps were a little bit high,” Canadian official Pierre Pinault told IPS. “So now that (a) push is coming to shove on the actual phase-out…the level of difficulty is becoming apparent.”

But Pinault remains optimistic. “Most of the production and consumption of ozone-depleting substances has been phased out in the last 20 or so years: we’ve got about an 85-percent phase out. In Canada I think we’re 97.5 percent … now it’s getting harder and harder to get that last little bit of reduction.”

A U.S. official said she was satisfied with the meeting’s outcome.

“We got a technically-justified number for the critical-use exemption, and we actually did something that was important today, in that we as a group of parties decided that we would more aggressively control production of new methyl bromide,” said Claudia McMurray, deputy assistant secretary for the environment.

Friday’s decision directs the northern countries to provide some of the pesticide they will use next year from existing stockpiles, rather than producing more of the substance.

David Doniger, an environmentalist from the Natural Resources Defence Council, said it was important that Washington had revealed the size of its methyl bromide stockpile.

But he said granting the U.S. exemption means, “the phase-out stops, it doesn’t continue toward zero, which was anticipated. That’s unacceptable, especially when there was such a large stockpile”.

Doniger said the U.S. request had not taken into account the development of alternatives to methyl bromide, such as a new product that can be used in place of methyl bromide to fumigate buildings. This product has apparently been registered in 27 of the country’s 50 states.

“You probe all these arguments and it comes down to cost,” he argued. “And cost comes down sometimes to very, very small differences in cost between one chemical and another – you know, between this one and a chemical that doesn’t hurt the ozone layer.”

Others said delegates should have kept the well being of future generations in mind.

“Some countries, especially mine, have high levels of UV (ultraviolet radiation) and are only too aware of the effects on health, particularly on children,” Alex Suarez Irusta of Bolivia told the meeting.

“This (meeting) should not be an opportunity for changing the trend of our work and for changing the (rules for the) use of substances that we had originally agreed to phase out.”

The ozone layer is expected to return to health in about 50 years – if the phase-out schedules are fully respected.

But, McMurray insisted in an interview: “What we really want to do is bring our numbers down. We want to get through this really difficult stage of the protocol for us, and find the alternatives and get farmers to use them.”

Led by Argentina, many developing nations here argued that granting long-term exemptions to countries that were supposed to stop using methyl bromide next year would provoke opposition from their farmers, who would insist on not being hampered by limits that others did not respect.

Others, such as Uganda, said they did not have the means to stop using the pesticide anyway. “We are saying that these alternatives that we are talking about are not in some cases available,” said a Ugandan official.

Many developing countries also objected to a call for them to set out more precisely how they would phase out their use of methyl bromide before the next meeting of a multilateral fund, which to date has provided 1.4 billion dollars in technical and financial assistance to those nations.

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