Ecobreves – GLOBAL: Ozone Protocol Also Curbs Climate Change

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

MONTEVIDEO, Sep 15 2007 (IPS) - Twenty years after the Montreal Protocol entered into force, United Nations officials are celebrating the fact that this pact has gone beyond its objective of protecting the atmospheric ozone layer to reducing emissions of gases that cause climate change. Thanks to the Protocol, signed Sep. 16, 1987, more than 95 percent of ozone-depleting substances have been eliminated, mostly chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), Mirian Vega, Latin America and Caribbean coordinator of the Protocol compliance division of the UN Environment Program, told Tierramérica.

But the bonus achievement has been its impact on global warming, adds Vega. Because of the agreements under the Protocol, the planet has seen a reduction of 25 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions –the result of the changes in industry related to eliminating ozone-depleting substances.