NOT SAVED YET!

Despite all the international efforts the ozone layer, the earth's protective shield against the sun's deadly UV radiation, is not saved yet. On the contrary, human onslaught against the ozone layer is continuing at a reckless pace. Alarmingly, the world still consumes, each year, approximately 34 to 40 percent of the ozone depleting substances (ODSs), calculated in Ozone Depleting Potential or ODP tonnes, that was consumed annually a decade ago.

According to a recent estimate, in the mid-nineties, the annual global ODS consumption was 355,000 ODP tonnes, or 33.9 percent of the ozone depleting substances (calculated in ODP tonnes) consumed in 1986. ¹

Actual global ODP consumption may be considerably higher given: (a) the acknowledged problems and inaccuracies within the existing system for data reporting on global ODS consumption, upon which the Parties rely for policy decisions; (b) the uncertainty regarding the overall contribution to global ODS consumption of the international black-market in CFCs; and (c) the unclear contribution to global ODS consumption of stock-piled ozone depleting substances around the world. Furthermore, these figures do not necessarily mean that the ozone layer is 60 to 66 percent safer today then it was in 1986, which would be an optimistic interpretation.

We have already entered the ozone layer's most vulnerable decade, during which the greatest degree of ozone depletion is expected as chlorine and bromine already released to the atmosphere accumulates in the stratosphere. ODPs traditionally measure a particular chemical's capacity to destroy ozone over a 200- to 500-year time period. Such long term measurements can be misleading for the crafting of policies for the immediate protection of the ozone layer, especially when it comes to controls on Rapid Ozone Destroyers (RODs), such as HCFCs and methyl bromide.

It is imperative that we take every action possible to avoid the release of additional chlorine/bromine, especially as we approach the next two decades of high ozone depletion.

¹ Oberthur, Dr. Sebastian , Ecologic-Centre for International and European Environmental Research, Current global consumption of major ozone depleting substances, Brussels, 21 May, 1997 [return]