Scientists Extend Time Ozone Layer Needs to Repair Itself

Armando Duke

Houston, TX - The good news is, the ozone layer is finally on the mend after decades of degradation, scientists say. The bad news is the ozone layer will take longer to repair itself than originally predicted. That's because the protective layer, which filters dangerous solar radiation, is repairing itself more slowly than forecast.

The level of ozone-depleting substances, while on the decline, is not being withdrawn from the atmosphere fast enough, making the recovery of the ozone layer a drawn out action.

Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) said the ozone layer would be back to pre-1980 levels by 2049, providing that the Montreal Protocol is continually enforced and efforts to remove harmful chemicals from getting into the atmosphere are adhered to or their removal programs accelerated.

Over Antarctica, where so-called "ozone holes" have grown over the past 30 years, recovery was likely to be delayed until 2065, 15 years later than earlier hoped.

"While these latest projections of ozone recovery are disappointing, the good news is that the level of ozone-depleting substances continues to decline from its 1992-94 peak in the troposphere and the 1990s peak in the stratosphere," said World Meteorological Organization (WMO) secretary-general Michel Jarraud.

The WMO and ENUP reported to the United Nations this last week on the results of their ozone-mending status report.

Earlier this month, the UN appointed Yvo de Boer to become the new Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which is responsible for gathering and sharing information on greenhouse gas emissions, national policies and best practices, and launching national strategies for addressing the issue, among other measures.

De Boer will assume his role on 4 September, in time to lead the Convention at the UN Climate Change Conference, which takes place in Nairobi, Kenya, in November.

"I am very enthusiastic about taking up the job ahead of this conference," said de Boer in a statement released by UNFCCC. "The conference is significant because some of the biggest challenges related to climate change which are presently facing humanity will be dealt with there."

The meeting, the first ever of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa, will focus on issues such as adaptation to climate change, technology transfer and talks and negotiations on the future of the climate change process, both under the UNFCCC and under the Kyoto Protocol, a binding pact which sets targets for greenhouse gas emissions.