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By Achim Steiner (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-09-18 07:28

It was 1987. The Soviet Union launched the Mir Space Station, the world population reached five billion, Oscar Arias Sanchez won the Nobel Peace Prize and Paul Simon's Graceland was named record of the year. But perhaps the key event occurred in Canada, when the world's nations agreed to the Montreal Protocol to repair and protect the Earth's protective ozone layer.

The treaty is perhaps the single most successful international environmental agreement ever made. It generates science and deploys funds to assist developing countries to phase out ozone damaging chemicals, like chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and halons. A fluorocarbon with chlorine, CFCs were formerly used as a refrigerant and as a propellant in aerosol cans. Halon is a compound in which the hydrogen atoms of a hydrocarbon have been replaced by bromine and other halogen atoms. Used in fire extinguishers, it is thought to release bromine that depletes the ozone layer.

But the impact of the treaty stretches beyond safeguarding public health from excessive ultra violet rays from the sun.

It is now clear that - as ozone depleting substances are also often powerful greenhouse gases - the treaty has also spared the planet and its people much global warming. Above all, it is a symbol of how, when faced with a serious international threat, nations can set aside differences and make common cause under the United Nations.

This week governments are meeting in Montreal and mark the protocol's 20th anniversary and the past, present - and also perhaps future - achievements of those who have made it a success. Future because - though 95 per cent of the substances it controls have been phased out - the remaining five per cent may prove troublesome. Getting rid of them is necessary for the ozone layer's full recovery.

Meanwhile some ozone depleting chemicals are also being increasingly employed in ways that fall outside the treaty's provisions. One example is quarantine and pre-shipment fumigation uses of methyl bromide which falls outside the control limits for methyl bromide specified under the protocol. Recently, as per ISPM-15 fumigation requirements for export consignments, methyl bromide is being used for wooden palettes fumigation and this being a quarantine use, is exempt from Montreal Protocol control measures.

The United Nations Environment Program's (UNEP) involvement in the issue began in 1977 following rising disquiet over links between CFCs, once common in products like hairsprays, and damage to the Earth's protective ozone layer. The big catalyst for action came when the British Antarctic Survey found an ozone hole over Antarctica in 1985. Remarkably, governments acted swiftly to agree on the treaty once the science was accepted. Just as important, industry - once provided with incontrovertible evidence - also moved fast to provide and use alternatives.

The Multilateral Fund-which has provided more than $2 billion in funding for developing countries' phase outs - is another key to success. This summer China shut down five plants, putting it two-and-a-half years ahead of the developing countries' 2010 deadline for phasing out CFCs and halons.

A big challenge for governments meeting in Montreal is how the treaty can contribute even more to combating climate change. Scientists from the Netherlands and the United States estimate that, by 2010, phasing out CFCs and other ozone depleting substances will save the equivalent of 11 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide a year. This compares to a cut of just one gigatonne over 1990 levels mandated under the Kyoto Protocol, or two gigatonnes from what the 2010 levels would be if emissions have been allowed to grow unchecked.

New assessments indicate that the protocol could achieve even more since some of the alternative chemicals to CFCs, such as HCFCs, a fluorocarbon that has replaced chlorofluorocarbon as a refrigerant and propellant in aerosol cans, also have climate change impacts.

These suggest that a combination of accelerated freeze and phase out, and the introduction of more climate-friendly products and relatively small changes in industrial practices could cumulatively cut the equivalent of between 18 gigatonnes and 25 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide over the coming decades.

A new set of calculations, produced by the Montreal Protocol's Technology and Economic Assessment Panel, suggests perhaps even bigger benefits with cumulative reductions equivalent to close to 40 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide.

A draft of proposals to accelerate a freeze and bring forward a phase out of HCFCs in about a decade are being submitted to the 19th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol for approval.

Interestingly they represent the determination of both developed and developing countries to maximize the climate combating potential of the ozone treaty countries from Africa, Latin America, Europe and North America among the proponents.

These developments come amid an increasing political momentum to realize ever deeper cuts in greenhouse gases. It follows a series of reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that have put a full stop behind the science - climate change is happening, it is "unequivocal" say the more than 2,000 scientists.

The IPCC has also spotlighted the likely and sobering impacts from the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas to more frequent and more intense floods from Bangladesh to New York.

The IPCC has also sounded a note of cautious optimism - it will not cost the Earth to save it, perhaps 0.1 per cent of global GDP annually for 30 years.

Some of the "quickest wins" include accelerating energy efficiency in buildings in rapidly developing regions such as Asia and a global phase out of old energy guzzling light bulbs in favor of compact fluorescent ones. An accelerated freeze and phase out of HCFCs now represents another of those "quick wins" which needs to be more widely understood and supported.

It is certainly a message that UNEP will take on from Montreal to New York only days later. Here Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General, is hosting a high level event on climate change with heads of state.

The climate achievements and the future climate benefits of the ozone protection treaty offers a clear illustration to world leaders that action on climate change is achievable and possible on a far wider front than may be commonly perceived.

It is the kind of confidence building across continents and across varying economic and national interests which can also assist in delivering a successful outcome at the crucial climate convention negotiations in Bali in December.

So the story of the Montreal Protocol has not yet reached its final chapter. There is much more to do and wider benefits to be harvested. But it has already achieved much to celebrate, putting the ozone layer on the road to recovery and helping to slow the pace of climate change.

Experts calculate that - without the decisions taken 20 years ago - atmospheric levels of ozone depleting substances would have increased 10-fold by 2050, leading to up to 20 million more cases of skin cancer and 130 million more cases of eye cataracts, not to speak of damage to human immune systems, wildlife and agriculture. Its continued success, politically and financially, must be assured.

The author is UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UNEP

(China Daily 09/18/2007 page11)