Ozone Layer Protection Essential
If the earth is likened to the big home of the entire humankind, the ozone layer can be compared to the roof of it.
The
ozone layer protects people's lives and their living environment by
shutting out ultraviolet rays radiated from the sun to the earth in the
stratosphere.
People, however, produce substances damaging the ozone layer in the course of their economic activities.
The damage of the layer brings about catastrophic results.
Harmful
ultraviolet rays make people contract hazardous diseases including skin
cancer and cataract, damage their immune system, decrease agricultural
output and cause seed variation to disrupt the food chain in the
ecosystem. This shows that ozone layer damage is a menace to the earth,
the only green planet in the solar system.
Therefore,
the international community decided to take international steps for the
protection of ozonosphere. In the course of this, the Vienna Convention
on the Protection of the Ozone Layer was adopted in 1985 and the
Montreal Protocol was introduced on September 16 1987, which stipulated
the substances that deplete the ozone layer and the plan to eliminate
them.
But it is not an easy job for all the governments to implement the protocol.
Ozone
destroyers are widely used in making vesicants, detergents,
disinfectants, chemicals for extinguishing fire and insecticides and
they mainly constitute the raw materials for chemical industry. This
required every government to take a responsible approach towards the
implementation of the protocol as it is directly linked to the destiny
of the earth and its future, not confined to individual countries and
the present.
The DPRK has observed its commitments faithfully since it signed the Vienna Convention and the Montreal Protocol in 1995.
It
worked out a national programme for eliminating ozone destroyers in
1997, set up the national ozone office in 1998 and established the
system of allotment for the production and consumption of destructive
substances and the system of permission of import and export of them to
provide a legal framework.
It
completely abolished the ozone depleting substances stipulated in the
Montreal Protocol (Appendixes A and B) until late 2010 in cooperation
with the Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal
Protocol, the United Nations Environment Programme and the United
Nations Industrial Development Organization. In the course of this, it
even eliminated such destructive materials as methyl bromide, a raw
material for insecticides, which were in great demand and had no
substitute or substitute technology at that time.
Ozone
depletion substances were eliminated much earlier than the timetable
set by the protocol (Appendixes A and B) in the DPRK.
The
DPRK national ozone office is stepping up the preparations for the HPMP
which corresponds to Appendixes C and E of the protocol that will start
from 2013.
It also channels big effort into PR activities to raise public awareness of the protection of the ozone layer.
On
the occasion of the 25th anniversary of World Ozone Day (September 16),
it has sponsored a variety of events including a commemorative event
and a national seminar and intensifying information activities through
the media.
The international community annually commemorates September 16 when the Montreal Protocol was adopted as World Ozone Day.