THE MORAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPERATIVES

Ultimately, beyond the scientific debate, the technological challenges, and the economic and business ramifications, the protection of the ozone layer is a question of moral priorities. This is, of course, also true for other environmental crises, such as, for example, human induced global warming and climate change.

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.

The environmental imperative has always been, and continues to be, to stop using all ozone depleting substances as quickly as possible, without resorting to the use of other damaging substances, such as HFCs, that significantly exacerbate the crises of global warming and the toxification of the environment.

The goal must be not only to minimize further ozone loss, but ultimately to facilitate Ð as much as it is humanly possible Ð the earliest recovery of the ozone layer.