Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 30, 1990 TAG: 9006300093
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: LONDON LENGTH: Medium
The agreement followed a last-minute concession by Washington. The United States agreed to provide technological assistance to poor nations in phasing out the production and use of chlorofluorocarbons, which have been found to deplete the ozone shield.
Ninety-three nations approved the agreement, which went far beyond a 1987 treaty that called for a 50 percent reduction in the production of chlorofluorocarbons by 1998. Fifty-seven nations previously had acceded to that agreement.
The latest accord was described by William Reilly, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as the most significant international agreement ever reached on the protection of the environment.
Chris Patten, Britain's secretary of state for the environment and the president of the meeting, called the agreement "a triumph of reason."
Ozone is a form of oxygen in the stratosphere that shields the Earth from dangerous solar ultraviolet radiation. An alarming thinning of the ozone layer in recent years has been caused by pollution, scientists believe, chiefly in the form of chlorofluorocarbons.
CFCs have been used since their invention in 1930 as refrigerants, plastic foam-blowing gases, solvents and propellants, and scientists are now developing substitutes for them.
Scientists say that as more ultraviolet radiation penetrates the atmosphere, it is likely to cause an epidemic of skin cancer and cataracts, as well as damage agriculture.
Two nations, China and India, which had refused to accede to the 1987 treaty, the Montreal Protocol, were satisfied by the latest agreement. Their delegation leaders plan to recommend ratification.
Besides banning the production and use in new products of the five main types of chlorofluorocarbons, the new agreement calls for a ban by the end of the century of three fire-extinguishing chemicals called halons.
Two other chlorine-based chemicals used as solvents and cleaning agents, methyl chloroform and carbon tetrachloride, are to be sharply restricted.
The participants agreed to reduce methyl chloroform production by 70 percent by the year 2000 and by 100 percent in 2005. Production of carbon tetrachloride is to be reduced 85 percent by 1995 and 100 percent by 2000.
Friday's agreement, in common with the Montreal Protocol, gives the poor nations a 10-year grace period to give up chlorofluorocarbons, obliging them to halt production before the year 2010 rather than 2000.
The agreement creates an international body with a 14-member executive committee. It will administer a fund that will be used to help poor countries make the transition to technologies free of chlorofluorocarbons.
The fund will total $240 million for the first three years. The United States has agreed to contribute $40 million to $60 million of this.
by CNB