September 16th is the United Nations International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer. A new UN report indicates that, thanks to international efforts, the ozone layer protecting the Earth has stopped depleting and is no longer thinning, which also helps mitigate the greenhouse effect.
The United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) jointly released the "Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion in 2010" report, making this statement.
The United Nations noted that the report, compiled by over 300 scientists, represents the latest data on the state of the ozone layer in four years. The report states that signatories to the Montreal Protocol, signed in 1987, have fulfilled their commitments to gradually phase out the production and use of ozone-depleting chemicals, leading to an improvement in the ozone layer's depletion situation.
The report points out that global ozone has stopped depleting over the past decade, but has not increased again; except over the polar regions, ozone layers in other regions are expected to recover to pre-1980 levels by the middle of this century, but the recovery of ozone layers over Antarctica will take much longer.
The report states that many ozone-depleting substances are also potent greenhouse gases, and the effective implementation of the Montreal Protocol will help mitigate climate change. In 2010, the reduction in ozone-depleting substances through the implementation of the Montreal Protocol, measured in carbon dioxide equivalent, amounted to approximately ten gigatons per year, five times higher than the reduction target for the first commitment period (2008-2012) of the Kyoto Protocol, which controls carbon dioxide emissions.
In addition to helping mitigate climate change, protecting the ozone layer is also beneficial to human health. Without the Montreal Protocol, by 2050, the concentration of ozone-depleting substances in the atmosphere could be ten times higher than it is now, resulting in more than 20 million new cases of skin cancer and 130 million new cases of cataracts, and causing widespread harm to the human immune system, wildlife, and agricultural production.
In 1995, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution designating September 16th of each year as the "International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer" to commemorate the signing of the "Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer" in September 1987. The protocol stipulates a gradual reduction and cessation of the production and use of ozone-depleting substances. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pointed out that, due to the cooperation of the contracting parties to the "Montreal Protocol," the production and consumption of ozone-depleting chemicals have been reduced by more than 98 percent.
–Source: United Daily News
