Jamaica making strides in protecting ozone layer - Pickersgill

Jamaica making strides in protecting ozone layer - Pickersgill

Minister of Water, Land, Environment and Climate Change Robert Pickersgill is lauding Jamaica's efforts at reducing the use of ozone-damaging substances.

"I am pleased to say that Jamaica phased out chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) as at January 1, 2006," he said. "This was an impressive achievement, indeed, as we did so four years ahead of the Montreal Protocol's 2010 phase-out date for CFCs."

The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer is an international treaty designed to phase out the production of numerous substances believed to be responsible for ozone depletion. Jamaica became a party to the treaty in 1993.

In 2007, the parties to the protocol took a decision to accelerate the phasing out of another group of harmful products, hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), which are man-made compounds containing hydrogen, chlorine, fluorine and carbon. Like CFCs, they affect the ozone.

In 2012, Jamaica began executing the HCFC Phase-out Management Plan Implementation Project, valued at US$237,450, and as of January 1, this year, implemented a freeze on the importation of the HCFCs.