 A new regional video film, just completed by TVE Asia Pacific, looks at the many remaining challenges in saving the ozone layer that protects life on earth from excessive radiation from the Sun.
The film’s main message: as most of the ozone damaging chemicals are now produced and consumed in the Asia Pacific, sustained action in this region is crucial for meeting the globally agreed targets for phase-out.
Titled Return of the Ozone Layer: Are We There Yet?, the film was produced for and on behalf of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). It was filmed on location in Cambodia, China, India and Thailand.
The film is being distributed in time for the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, which falls on September 16. It will thereafter be available from the UNEP Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (UNEP-ROAP) in Bangkok, Thailand, and from TVE Asia Pacific’s regional office in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Unlike many other video films on the subject, Return of the Ozone Layer focuses on individual action that needs to be taken in developing countries for phasing out the production and use of ozone damaging chemicals.
The Montreal Protocol, adopted in 1987, set time-bound, measurable targets for managing nearly 100 such chemicals.
 These chemicals are closely tied to economic activity, public health and safety. Therefore, developing countries and economies in transition were given more time to reduce consumption -- with the same goal of eventually phasing them out. The industrialised countries have already stopped producing these chemicals.
Nearly two decades later, the Montreal Protocol’s implementation has produced tremendous benefits to our health and environment, the film notes. It then adds: “But it’s a bit too early to celebrate. Many challenges remain. Developing countries now have to show they are making good use of the extra time and resources given to them.”
As the largest producer and user of ozone damaging chemicals, the Asia Pacific region has the biggest responsibility in ensuring their phase-out according to timeframes already agreed upon.
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| The new video film, Return of the Ozone Layer: Are We There Yet?, covers the following key challenges in ensuring an ozone safer Asia Pacific region: |
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Phasing out CFCs from refrigerator servicing |
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Replacing old chillers with new ones |
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Phasing out Methyl Bromide use in agriculture |
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Phasing out ozone damaging chemicals in low volume user countries |
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Phasing out carbon tetrachloride in the solvent sector |
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Stemming illegal trade in chemicals already phased out |
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Phasing out ozone damaging chemicals in the Pacific island countries |
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Safe disposal of old equipment containing various ozone damaging chemicals |
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| These hurdles have to be cleared as the region moves towards 85% reduction in 2007, and full compliance by 2010. |
For example, all production and use of CFCs in developing countries must stop in 2010.
“But it’s easier said than done. The region has tens of thousands of small scale industries and farms that still use ozone damaging chemicals. To accomplish the remaining phase-out targets, all of them need to be engaged,” the film notes.
The film looks at eight key challenges the Asia Pacific region faces on the road to 2010 (see box: Ozone saving challenges).
| “Clearly, governments alone cannot win this race. Millions of ordinary citizens have to join in,” the film says – and then goes on to feature the work of five ordinary Asia Pacific nationals whose work involves using different ozone damaging chemicals: |
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Shiva Kumar Singh, who runs a refrigerator servicing dealership in Pondicherry, India |
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Annit Utsaha, Director of Engineering at the Novotel Bangna hotel in Bangkok, Thailand |
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Li Bingchen, a farmer in the Hebei Province, China |
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Pav Chou Horng, an air conditioner technician in Phnom Penh, Cambodia |
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Rajesh Bhai, a South Asian laundry worker |
These case studies indicate the magnitude and complexity of phasing out the few dozen chemicals from tens of thousands of distributed users across the vast region.
The film recognises that compliance needs a mix of policy, law, regulations, capacity building and awareness raising. “Together, these make up the formula for timely, effective phase-out of ozone depleting substances without compromising economic activity or market competitiveness.”
"I don’t think something like this can just be done by settling it between governments, or even transferring money between governments,” says Kartikeya V Sarabhai, Director, Centre for Environment Education, India, who is interviewed on the film. “Because ultimately, it is very decentralized – the way in which these changes have to be done. And if you don’t really involve people, it’s extremely difficult…I think you really do need education to play a very major role".
The Montreal Protocol’s Multilateral Fund has been assisting developing countries to phase out the chemicals through technical cooperation, advisory services and financial support. The Fund has approved a number of projects to help Asia Pacific countries to meet compliance targets. These are being implemented with the involvement of the World Bank, UNIDO, UNDP and donor countries like Sweden, Japan and Australia.
The UNEP Asia Pacific office has an expert team that is providing technical assistance to the region’s countries through two regional networks of National Ozone Officers. Increasingly, focus is on how developing countries can learn from, and help each other – or south-south co-operation.
The film concludes with the following thoughts:
Asians helping each other
“Here the regional cooperation, dialogue with the governments together with other governments is important. I think as a region, when countries begin small. Big countries like China, like India sit together with small countries like Maldives, or Nepal or Bhutan there is a sense of regional ownership. Small countries do not have the facilities. They are not producing, they are small consumers, but countries like China, when they have announced that they will phase out by 2007 show leadership role to the whole region.”
- Surendra Shrestha, Regional Director, Asia and the Pacific, UNEP, interviewed on the film |
The world is at a tipping point in eliminating ozone-depleting chemicals.
The Montreal Protocol has been recognised as an international environmental agreement that is succeeding.
But there is much to be done before we can rest assured of an ozone safe world. Timely phase-out action by millions of Asians is part of this unfinished business.
Click here for full credit list of production team
Click here for UNEP credits and acknowledgements
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