World Ozone Day 2020 – Ozone for life!

16 September is World Ozone Day. Thanks to international cooperation, this year we celebrate 35 years of the Vienna Convention and 35 years of global ozone layer protection.

World Ozone Day shows that collective decisions and action, guided by science, are the only way to solve major global crises.

Background:

In 1985, the world’s governments adopted the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer. Under the Convention’s Montreal Protocol, governments, scientists and industry worked together to cut out 99 per cent of all ozone-depleting substances. Thanks to the Montreal Protocol, the ozone layer is healing and expected to return to pre-1980 values by mid-century. In support of the Protocol, the Kigali Amendment, which came into force in 2019, will work towards reducing hydrofluorocarbon (HFCs),greenhouse gases with powerful climate-warming potential and damaging to the environment.

World Ozone Day 2020: Ozone Facts

Sometime in the late 1970s, scientists found out that gases used in refrigerators and air conditioners for cooling were creating a hole in the ozone layer.

This was a cause of great concern as the dangerous UV rays of the sun were creating severe health issues including skin cancers.

It was a wake-up call for governments across the world. In 1985 countries adopted the 'Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer'.

Under the Vienna Convention's Montreal Protocol, nations worked together to cut out 99 per cent of ozone-depleting substances