Protective ozone layer to remain thin for longer: UN
The recovery of the earth's protective ozone layer, which was ravaged by chemicals in the 20th century, will take five to 15 years longer than predicted.
"The delayed recovery is a warning that we cannot take the ozone layer for granted and must maintain and accelerate our efforts to phase out harmful chemicals," said Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme Friday.
Some 250 scientists concluded in a report that there were more amounts of damaging chemicals -- some of them contained in refrigerators -- still available or being produced than previously estimated, UNEP and the World Meteorological Organisation said.
Most but not all ozone-depleting substances are banned or being eliminated under the 1989 Montreal Protocol, one of the world's few successful environmental treaties.
"We have an unfinished job which bears directly on human health and wider environmental concerns," Marco Gonzalez, executive secretary of the Montreal Protocol, told journalists.
The layer in the upper atmosphere, which protects life on earth from excessive solar radiation, should start to recover over inhabitated northern and southern mid-latitude areas of the world by 2049, instead of 2044, according to the report.
The ozone layer over the Antarctic will only be completely replenished 15 years later than predicted, by 2065.
"The delayed recovery is a warning that we cannot take the ozone layer for granted and must maintain and accelerate our efforts to phase out harmful chemicals," said Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme Friday.
Some 250 scientists concluded in a report that there were more amounts of damaging chemicals -- some of them contained in refrigerators -- still available or being produced than previously estimated, UNEP and the World Meteorological Organisation said.
Most but not all ozone-depleting substances are banned or being eliminated under the 1989 Montreal Protocol, one of the world's few successful environmental treaties.
"We have an unfinished job which bears directly on human health and wider environmental concerns," Marco Gonzalez, executive secretary of the Montreal Protocol, told journalists.
The layer in the upper atmosphere, which protects life on earth from excessive solar radiation, should start to recover over inhabitated northern and southern mid-latitude areas of the world by 2049, instead of 2044, according to the report.
The ozone layer over the Antarctic will only be completely replenished 15 years later than predicted, by 2065.
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