Kenya to promote awareness campaign on ozone layer depletion

Nairobi, Sep 17 (IANS) Kenya has pledged to scale up an awareness campaign on the devastating impacts of ozone layer depletion.

Aden Duale, cabinet secretary for the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Forestry, said the campaign will provide an opportunity to further educate the public on the health and ecological impacts of depleting the ozone layer, a part of the earth's atmosphere that absorbs the bulk of the sun's ultraviolet radiation, Xinhua news agency reported.

During the 2024 World Ozone Day national celebrations held in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, Duale said the government is committed to phasing out ozone-depleting substances.

Kenya is in full compliance with phase-out obligations of hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), and it is also on course to meet the 67.5-percent reduction target by 2025 under the Montreal Protocol, Duale said.

"We have made significant strides in phasing out ozone-depleting substances and are working diligently to meet our obligations under the Kigali Amendment, which calls for the phasedown of HCFCs," he added.

According to the Kigali amendment, countries are supposed to phase down the production and consumption of HCFCs, thus creating the potential to avoid up to 0.5 degrees Celsius of warming by the end of the century.

Duale said the Montreal Protocol has put the ozone layer on the road to recovery by phasing out Ozone-Depleting Gases and, in the process, helping mitigate climate change.

He added that the Montreal Protocol has directly contributed to reducing global warming by targeting substances like chlorofluorocarbons and HCFCs, which are also potent greenhouse gases.

Duale said that Kenya has developed policies and legislation to guide cold chains for fresh produce to cooling in the transport and hospitality sectors as efforts aimed at achieving low global warming potential and energy-efficient alternatives.

World Ozone Day celebrates the Montreal Protocol, a landmark UN agreement adopted in 1987 that united the world to phase out the production and use of ozone-depleting substances to protect the ozone layer.Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, urged nations to promote activities under the objectives of the Montreal Protocol and its amendments.