UN / OZONE DEPLETION AND CLIMATE CHANGE

A new UNEP report says that the world avoided a major problem by getting rid of ozone depleting substances by the Montreal Protocol, but Executive Director Achim Steiner said, “what was not foreseen” is that if the use of the substance that replaced them, Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), continues to increase, there could be “a major negative issue and challenge in terms of global warming.” UNIFEED-UNTV

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:17
• Production Date: 10 September 2014
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME - UNEP
• Subject Topical: ENVIRONMENT; POLLUTION; CLIMATE CHANGE; ENVIRONMENTAL EMERGENCIES
• MAMS Id: 1166472

Description

STORY: UN / OZONE DEPLETION AND CLIMATE CHANGE
TRT: 2.17
SOURCE: UNIFEED - UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 10 SEPTEMBER 2014, NEW YORK CITY / FILE

Shotlist

FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters

10 SEPTEMBER 2014, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, dais
3. Med shot, journalists
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Achim Steiner, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director:
“The world avoided a major problem by getting rid of ozone depleting substances by the Montreal Protocol. Indeed, without this Protocol and all the actions that we’ve taken across the globe, we would be seeing a very substantial global ozone depletion today. We’ve seen evidence of a decline in ozone depleting substances over the past decade. Now we are starting to increasingly encouraging signs from ozone measurements that the ozone layer is on track to recovery by the middle of this century.”
5. Close up, photographer
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Achim Steiner, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director:
“We are dealing here with a coupled ozone layer and climate change issue. Between these two there are connections in science, in human emissions that cause them and hence also in the policy options for dealing with them. In very simple terms, you can say that ozone recovery is influenced by climate change.”
7. Wide shot, journalists
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Achim Steiner, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director:
“We are at a critical point were HFC’s were introduced in order to address the issue of ozone depletion, what we did not anticipate at the time or what was not foreseen, is that if the use of HFCs continues to increase at the rate that we now envisage, which is roughly increasing at a rate of seven percent a year, and you begin to extrapolate that, then by the year 2050 you could have a major negative issue and challenge in terms of global warming.”
9. Med shot, journalist
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Achim Steiner, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director:
“If we act now in understanding the connections between ozone and climate action, we can avoid a major problem. Do we not succeed in having a mutually reinforcing compatible strategy, we would actually undermine, ironically, the efforts in one international effort called the UNFCCC by inadvertent impacts on the Montreal protocol, and that is why this issue has become so significant.”
11. Wide shot, journalists
12. Various shots, end of presser

Storyline

The Earth’s protective ozone layer is on track to recover by the middle of the century, the United Nations today (10 September) reported, urging unified action to tackle climate change and curb continued fluctuations to the composition of the atmosphere.

That is according to the assessment of 300 scientists in the summary document of the Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion 2014, published by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

At a press conference at UN Headquarters, UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said “the world avoided a major problem by getting rid of ozone depleting substances by the Montreal Protocol.”

Steiner noted that without the enforcement of the Protocol “we would be seeing a very substantial global ozone depletion today.” Instead, he said, “we are starting to increasingly encouraging signs from ozone measurements that the ozone layer is on track to recovery by the middle of this century.”

Nevertheless, the UNEP official said, “we are dealing here with a coupled ozone layer and climate change issue” and pointed out that “what was not foreseen” was that the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which replaced ozone depleting substances, could become “a major negative issue and challenge in terms of global warming.”

Steiner said “if we act now in understanding the connections between ozone and climate action, we can avoid a major problem. Do we not succeed in having a mutually reinforcing compatible strategy, we would actually undermine, ironically, the efforts in one international effort called the UNFCCC by inadvertent impacts on the Montreal protocol, and that is why this issue has become so significant.”

The ozone layer, a fragile shield of gas, protects the Earth from the harmful portion of the sun’s ultraviolet rays, thus helping to preserve life on the planet.

Its recovery, according to the scientists, is attributed to the collective action through the Montreal Protocol, which since 1987, has led countries to carry out policies to reduce and then phase out their use of ozone-depleting chemicals.