PRESS CONFERENCE ON 1999 UNEP SASAKAWA PRIZE

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE ON 1999 UNEP SASAKAWA PRIZE

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Sasakawa Prize would be a “powerful incentive to continue work for the good of the environment”, the 1999 winner, Mario Molina, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference today shortly before the official award ceremony.

“The world faces immense environmental challenges in the next century”, Mr. Molina said, adding that the “capacity of the planet to regenerate natural resources is being outstripped by population growth”, and future generations would have to use them more cautiously than previous ones.

It was announced earlier this month that the 1999 prize had gone to Mr. Molina, Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for his “outstanding contributions in the field of atmospheric chemistry”. He and his colleagues discovered previously unknown reactions in which chlorine is activated on the surface of ice cloud particles in the polar atmosphere and another involving chlorine peroxide –- which accounts for most ozone destruction in the Antarctic.

Asked about the current state of the ozone layer, Mr. Molina said the final years of the 20th century were experiencing the worst damage, but he predicted a slow recovery over the next few years thanks to the Montreal Protocol and other international conventions banning the production of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) gases. “Some CFCs are now beginning to decrease,” he told correspondents. “Overall [the Montreal Protocol] is a success story.”

Asked about the environmental crisis in Mexico City, Mr. Molina, who was born in Mexico, said the situation there was very challenging. “The problem can be controlled only with strong measures. New technology and new cars with catalytic converters would help and we can expect to have an impact. But a similar situation in Los Angeles took years to bring under control”.

Mexico City was also a case-study for an inter-disciplinary approach to the environment, Mr. Molina said, with some scientists working on the physics and chemistry of pollution while others studied its social consequences.

The UNEP Sasakawa Environment prize, sponsored by the Nippon Foundation, has been awarded annually since 1984 to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the management and protection of

UNEP Press Conference - 2 - 17 November 1999

the global environment. At Wednesday’s award ceremony at United Nations Headquarters, President Andres Pastrana Arango of Colombia will give the Pastrana Borrero Lecture.

United Nations Environment Programme Executive Director Klaus Toepfer also present at the press conference, told correspondents that progress being made to repair the seemingly irrevocable damage to the Earth’s stratosphere was due in great part to the research undertaken by scientists around the globe like Mr. Molina. Despite progress, however, the ozone hole over the Antarctic was still more than twice the size of mainland China, he noted.

The press conference was also attended by Lord Stanley Clinton Davies, who sat on the panel of judges for the 1999 award, and Takashi Ito, the Director of International Affairs of the Nippon Foundation.

Mr. Ito said he hoped the award would help to familiarize the people of the world with Mr. Molina’s work.

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