MAJOR REVIEW OF FIGHT TO SAVE OZONE LAYER FROM DEPLETION TO TAKE PLACE AT UN ENVIRONMENT MEETINGS IN COSTA RICA

Press Release
HE/941

MAJOR REVIEW OF FIGHT TO SAVE OZONE LAYER FROM DEPLETION TO TAKE PLACE AT UN ENVIRONMENT MEETINGS IN COSTA RICA

Representatives from 100 Countries Will Discuss Adherence To Vienna Convention, Montreal Protocol to Phase Out Chlorofluorocarbons

NAIROBI/NEW YORK, 6 November (UNEP) -- Officials from more than 100 countries, and representatives from United Nations specialized agencies and other organizations, are to meet shortly in San José, Costa Rica, to discuss how to finance the efforts of developing countries to phase out chlorofluorocarbons and other ozone-destroying chemicals.

Coming at a time of serious budget constraints in key industrialized countries, the debate will be a major test of the international community's commitment to ozone protection. Participants will include representatives of ozone assessment panels and non-governmental organizations.

A series of high-level meetings will be held from 19 to 27 November, with a three-day ministerial session beginning on 25 November. The programme will include meetings of the Conference of Parties to the 1985 Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, and of Parties to the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.

Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which hosts the Ozone secretariat in Nairobi, said assistance to developing countries in adopting ozone-friendly technologies must remain an urgent priority.

Delegates at the Costa Rica meeting will discuss replenishment of the Montreal Protocol's Multilateral Fund for its 1997-1999 project cycle. (Governments established the Fund in 1990 to facilitate technology transfer and to meet the "incremental costs" incurred by recipient countries in their efforts to implement the control measures agreed in the Protocol.) Some developing countries have stated that the proposed level of contributions to the Multilateral Fund would not be adequate.

Another key issue on the agenda is methyl bromide. Last year in Vienna it was agreed that industrialized countries should phase out methyl bromide by the year 2010. Developing countries, which previously faced no controls at

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all, agreed to freeze methyl bromide by 2002 at average 1995-1998 levels. Officials will also examine a number of proposals for so-called "essential use" exemptions for some industrialized countries.

Under the Montreal Protocol, governments have agreed to phase out the identified chemicals that destroy ozone in the stratosphere. Chloro- fluorocarbons are inert odourless gases used in refrigeration, aerosols, foams, industrial cleaners and many other applications.

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Note: The meeting is to be held at the Conference Centre, Herradura in San José, Costa Rica, where the general telephone number is (506) 239 0033, 293 0033 or 257 5658. Further information available from: Jim Sniffen, UNEP New York, Tel: 1-212-963-8094, fax: 1-212-963-7341, e-mail: sniffenj@un.org. Also: Ozone secretariat WWW Home Page at: http://www.unep.ch/ozone/