Saving the ozone layer.

• Position: Focus on Survival of the Planet

A Saving the Ozone Layer" conference was held in March in London, organized by the Government of the United Kingdom and UNEP. While there, 20 countries promised to sign the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. The Protocol, which entered into force on 1 January 1989 and has now been signed by 45 countries as well as the European Economic Community, calls for a 50 per cent reduction in the production of ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by the end of the century.

In opening the conference, Kenya's President Daniel T.arap Moi said that many countries would be devastated even if only a half of most predictions regarding the environment were to come true in the next 50 years.

He asked industrialized nations to make sacrifices commensurate in magnitude with those expected from third world countries. Those countries were being asked to forego the use of ozone-depleting chemicals precisely now that they were starting to embark on large-scale expansion of their refrigeration, air-conditioning, plastics and electronics industries. They would need help from the developed world, the Kenyan President stressed.

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher told the conference that with new technologies and substances available and with the help of highly industrialized nations, developing countries need not go at all through an industrial phase in which CFCs are used.

Common action was required to halt ozone depletion. "Every country must play its part. Every citizen can help", Mrs. Thatcher said.

The London conference focused on new and often alarming scientific data that shows that the rate of ozone depletion is much worse than thought only a few months ago. There was general acceptance that the ultimate objective must be total elimination of production and consumption of ozone-damaging CFCs...