2/4/2004
Ban On Ozone Depleting Substance Agreed

The ban on methyl bromide - a chemical highly damaging to the ozone layer - will come into effect on 1 January 2005 thanks to an agreement reached last weekend by the 183 signatory countries to the Montreal Protocol. The ban had been in some doubt as a result of requests for exemptions from a number of countries. The European Commission welcomed he outcome of the meeting.

"This is the best piece of news I received last weekend," said Margot Wallström, Commissioner for the Environment. "The Montreal Protocol is the most successful environmental treaty to date. I am relieved and glad that the disagreement over methyl bromide has been resolved, thanks to flexibility and commitment by all Parties. This will allow us to continue the Protocol's implementation as previously agreed. We simply have to stick to the timetable to phase out all ozone-damaging substances as agreed. Only this will allow the ozone layer to regain its full protective power and save current and future generations from the sun's dangerous ultraviolet radiation."

Methyl bromide is a pesticide that is still used by some strawberry and tomato growers and mill owners to kill pests in soils and food processing facilities. Its damaging effect on the Earth's protective ozone layer became known in the early 1990s, prompting the Parties to the Montreal Protocol to agree on a phase-out schedule and a production and import ban to come into effect in industrialised countries in 2005. Critical use exemptions to the ban are to be granted by the 183 Parties themselves, acting in agreement, in a very limited number of cases where there are no technically and economically feasible alternatives. For the vast majority of uses, there are alternatives that are now in use in many countries around the world.

The sticking point among the 183 Parties were the critical use exemptions that the US and 16 other industrialised countries requested to the 2005 ban on production and import of methyl bromide in industrialised countries. In total, they had asked to produce or import 14,000 tonnes of methyl bromide under the ban, with the US alone requesting 9,500 tonnes and EU member states demanding 4,000 tonnes. The US request exceeded current levels of methyl bromide production and import in the US (7,500 tonnes) and asked for more methyl bromide than 126 developing countries at present use in total.

Some other 80 countries have already familiarised their farmers and mill owners with alternatives so that methyl bromide is hardly used in these countries any longer, if at all. They include the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and Japan, but also developing countries such as Brazil, Costa Rica and Argentina.