UNEP OPENS OZONE INFORMATION SERVICE ON WORLD WIDE WEB

28 October 1996

Press Release
HE/940
PI/976

UNEP OPENS OZONE INFORMATION SERVICE ON WORLD WIDE WEB

19961028 PARIS, 25 October (UNEP) -- The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has set up a new information exchange service on the Internet's World Wide Web, opening a window to technical and policy information relating to protection of the stratospheric ozone layer. Anyone in the world who has access to the Web can visit the home page by pointing their browser software to http://www.unepie.org/ozonaction.html.

In 1991, parties to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer established a Multilateral Fund to assist developing countries in phasing out ozone-depleting substances. As one of the Fund's implementing agencies, UNEP's OzonAction Programme -- part of UNEP's Industry and Environment Centre in Paris -- acts as a clearing-house, providing industry, governments and other stakeholders in developing countries with information exchange services, training and workshops, and the networking of national officers concerned with ozone depletion. The Programme also provides assistance in formulating country programmes, as well as in institutional strengthening projects.

The home page provides information about: mission of the OzonAction Programme and services it provides; background on the Multilateral Fund; public awareness materials and publications; list of ozone-depleting substances controlled under the Montreal Protocol; latest phase-out schedule agreed to by the parties, including how much time is left; an on-line version of the latest OzonAction newsletter; answers to ozone-protection questions; downloadable software and database; contacts for key ozone-protection focal points and institutions worldwide; list of the upcoming ozone-protection events; and links to other stratospheric ozone-protection Web sites.

This home page is a strategic extension of the OzonAction Programme's ongoing information-sharing networks. Those networks have centred on communication media that is both appropriate and accessible to developing countries -- that is, hardcopy publications and diskette databases. Feedback on developing countries' needs shows that, with the rapid expansion of Internet accessibility throughout the world, many developing-country industries and governments now prefer the Web and e-mail for communication. In accordance with the UNEP-wide initiative to make environmental information

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more readily available to a greater number of stakeholders through the Web, the OzonAction Programme is meeting this need. The contents and features of the Web site will evolve over time to incorporate new information and address user feedback.

Organizations that maintain their own Web sites are encouraged to add the following description and URL to link their page to the OzonAction site:

"UNEP-IE OzonAction Programme -- http://www.unepie.org/ozonaction.html

This site provides information produced by UNEP-IE's OzonAction Programme under the Multilateral Fund for the implementation of the Montreal Protocol. This information-exchange service provides a window to a range of information to assist developing countries phase out their use of ozone- depleting substances. Among other data, it includes the on-line OzonAction newsletter, contacts for assistance around the world, downloadable software and database, public awareness materials, and much more."

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