More progress urged on ozone hole (BBC)

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By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC news website

Faster progress is needed to safeguard the ozone layer, according to one of the scientists who discovered the "ozone hole" over Antarctica.

Writing on the BBC News website, Joe Farman calls for faster phase-out of some ozone-destroying chemicals, and for the destruction of stockpiles.

The Montreal Protocol regulating these substances is 20 years old this week.

Some of Dr Farman's arguments have been echoed by senior figures in the UN, and by European and US politicians.

He is of critical of the agreement which allows developing countries to keep on using some ozone-depleting chemicals until 2040.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6998489.stm



Here is the "Green Room" article itself:

Unfinished business of ozone protection

VIEWPOINT
Joe Farman

It was announced, on 16 September 1987 in Montreal, that a United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) working group had reached an agreement.

Readers of Lewis Carroll may recall the words of an old song that came into Alice's head in Through the Looking Glass: "Tweedledum and Tweedledee agreed - to have a battle".

What was agreed in Montreal 20 years ago? Essentially, governments would be invited to ratify a protocol to control substances that were depleting the ozone layer.
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Under such measures, the accumulation of chlorine and bromine in the atmosphere would not be stopped, but merely slowed down.
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Frequent reviews rescued the Montreal Protocol from deficiencies in the original draft, and another comprehensive re-examination is clearly needed.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6995667.stm