Last Updated:
February 28, 2007

GCRIO Program Overview

Library 
Our extensive collection of documents.

Privacy Policy

Archives of the
Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 1, NUMBER 5, NOVEMBER 1988

NEWS...
EPA CALLS FOR COMPLETE PHASEOUT

Item #d88nov3

On September 26, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee M. Thomas stated the 50 percent reduction in production of chlorofluorocarbons and restrictions on halons specified by the Montreal Protocol is insufficient to protect the ozone layer. An EPA report released the same day (see REPORTS, this Global Climate Change Digest issue--Nov. 1988) concludes there will still be growing chlorine and bromine levels in the stratosphere under the protocol, and a complete phaseout of damaging chemicals is necessary to stabilize stratospheric ozone levels. Thomas urged rapid ratification of the protocol, and cooperation to achieve further reductions under its provision for taking into account emerging scientific evidence. He gave no specific timetable for a phaseout. The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer needs ratification to go into effect January 1, 1989; as of early October 10, countries had ratified. See Global Climate Change Digest, NEWS, Sep. 1988; Science, p. 25, Oct. 7; New York Times, p. A20, Sep. 27.