Russian tightens control over ozone layer state

MOSCOW, November 25. /TASS/. The Russian government has tightened control over the production of ozone-depleting substances in the country under the environment protection law. The prime minister’s decree posted on the government website on Tuesday set the maximum permissible levels of consumption of such substances in 2015. Russia undertook control over the ozone-depleting substances to meet its obligations under the Montreal Protocol that envisages phasing out the production of numerous substances that are responsible for ozone depletion with halting their production by 2030, and the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer. The Montreal Protocol controls the production and consumption of specific chemicals, none of which occur naturally: CFCs, halons, fully Halogenated CFCs (HCFCs), methyl bromide, and similar chemicals. It sets specific targets for reduction and a timetable for doing so. The Protocol originally required parties other than developing countries to freeze consumption and production of CFCs at 1986 levels (the base year), to reduce them by 20 percent and then an additional 30 percent by 1999, and to freeze consumption of halons at 1986 levels. The formula of targets and timetables has been subsequently employed in other international agreements controlling air pollutants and in the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Ministry of Natural Resources previously reported that Russia has been consistently reducing the consumption of ozone-depleting substances. It also introduced changes to the list of goods restricted in the territory of the Customs Union (of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan) that ban the production of equipment, containing ozone-depleting substances. Read more