‘Ozone layer no longer vanishing’

LONDON - The ozone layer is no longer depleting and could recoup its strength by 2048, says a United Nations report.

The phasing out of nearly 100 substances once used in gadgets like fridges and aerosols has stopped the ozone layer from further depletion, the report says.

And it claimed that international efforts to protect the ozone layer have averted millions of cases of skin cancer worldwide.

The ozone layer outside the polar regions is projected to recover to pre-1980 levels by 2048, although the annual springtime ozone hole over the Antarctic is not expected to recover until 2073, reports the Daily Mail.

Ozone in the stratosphere does a vital job by soaking up some of the Sun’s dangerous ultraviolet radiation.

The report is the first comprehensive update in four years on the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and the Montreal Protocol phasing out chemicals which accelerate both ozone layer damage and climate change.

“It (the protocol) has protected the stratospheric ozone layer from much higher levels of depletion by phasing out production and consumption of ozone depleting substances,” said the report.

The report was written and reviewed by 300 scientists and launched on the UN International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer.

Given that many substances that deplete the ozone layer are also potent greenhouse gases, the Montreal Protocol ‘provided substantial co-benefits by reducing climate change’, it added.

In 2010, reductions of ozone-depleting substances as a result of the protocol, were five times larger than those targeted by the Kyoto protocol - the greenhouse emissions reduction treaty.