Faster track for ozone layer protection.

Representatives from more than 100 governments met in Montreal last month and agreed to tighten restrictions on several chemicals harmful to the ozone layer. The meeting, which ran from Sept. 15 to 17, also marked the 10th anniversary of the original international treaty to phase out ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

The new agreement accelerates the elimination of methyl bromide, a soil and crop fumigant. Developing countries had previously agreed only to freeze their use of this chemical in 2002, but they have now accepted a complete phaseout by 2015, with some exceptions for critical uses after that time.

Meanwhile, industrial nations have agreed to move the deadline for eliminating methyl bromide from 2010 to 2005, with similar exceptions thereafter.

Delegates in Montreal also set up a licensing system, which will take effect on Jan. 1, 2000, to help governments track international trade in CFCs and discourage illegal sales. A brisk black market has emerged in industrial nations (SN: 5/25/96, p. 331). In 1996, the U.S. Customs Service seized more than 87,500 kilograms of CFCs, with an estimated value in excess of $3.8 million.

Attendees failed to reach consensus on proposals by the European Community and Switzerland to accelerate the phaseout of hydrochlorofluorocarbons, a class of chemicals that can replace CFCs in some applications but that still harm the ozone layer (SN: 4/7/90, p. 215).

Despite the new agreement, not everyone was happy with the extent of progress made by the delegates. "There was a big opportunity to do a lot more at this meeting, but the steps taken at Montreal were timid ones, compared to the danger yet to come," says Brent Blackwelder, president of Friends of the Earth U.S. in Washington, D.C.