NEW DELHI: Environmental non-governmental organisations have called for the strengthening the Montreal Protocol to ensure its success as it approaches its 20th anniversary next year.

Adopted in 1987, the "Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer" is considered the world's most effective and successful multilateral environmental agreements.

The phase-out of ozone-depleting substances is saving millions of people from skin cancer and other illnesses and protecting the world's ecosystems that are sensitive to increased ultraviolet radiation.

As many ozone-depleting substances are also potent greenhouse gases, the Protocol has also made a substantial contribution to mitigating global warming, a statement issued by the NGOs said here on Thursday to mark the high-level segment of the 18th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol.

The statement has suggested acceleration of freeze and phase-out of the hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and introduction of additional step-wise reductions in the phase-out schedule, complete phase-out of agricultural and structural use of methyl bromide in industrial countries within three years.

Coordination

Importantly, it stressed on the need for improving coordination between the MontrealProtocol and the Kyoto Protocol to eradicate and prevent perverse incentives that increase HCFC-22 production as a result of the Clean Development Mechanism. There was also a need to avoid unnecessary proliferation of alternatives with high global warming potentials besides strengthening of monitoring and control of illegal international trade in ozone-depleting substances.

The Montreal Protocol needs reforms to meet these challenges.

The ozone layer and the climate are vulnerable, and without urgent action by the parties, much of the Protocol's hard-won achievements in protecting the ozone layer and mitigating climate change may be undone, the statement said.

It cited as the major challenges the higher than expected growth in production and consumption of HCFCs; unexpected adverse impacts of global warming; difficulties in integrating decisions under the Montreal and Kyoto Protocols; and continued excessive use of methyl bromide for agricultural and quarantine and preshipment purposes.

Signatories

The signatories to the statement are Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental (Mexican Environmental Law Centre), Environmental Investigation Agency, Friends of the Earth-UK, Centre for Human Rights and Environment, Greenpeace International, Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, Law for a Green Planet Institute and Natural Resources Defense Council.

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