Counting losses

The ozone layer, which shields life on earth from the Sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation, is slowly disappearing from the upper reaches of the atmosphere, especially over the South Pole. Hence the need to monitor this loss. However, there are problems with the ozone-measuring devices. Satellites and ground-based instruments, for instance, sketch a very general picture of the ozone profile - the total ozone lost over a span of 40 km. To

Trading with environment

UNDER the guise of concern for the environment and public health, Western governments continue to push the private agendas of large multinational interests. Experts advising international green funds and banks offer obsolete high-cost, energy-intensive technologies to developing countries, ensuring that old markets are preserved and new ones opened up. Cheaper, cleaner and more efficient technology options are given short shift.

The difference is in the recipe

IN INDIA, the determination and articulation of the country's stands on international issues have been the exclusive mandate of diplomats and bureaucrats. No matter how critical an issue, the people have had little say in influencing the government's position.

Here comes the ozone brigade

RAVINDER Kaul, chief projects manager of Sriram Refrigeration and Fertilisers Ltd (SRF), spends most of his working hours nowadays poring over official documents of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). S L Wadhwa, head of marketing in Gujarat Fluorochemicals, has put his company's products on the backburner and now concentrates on promoting the company's stand on an international environmental issue.

Monkeying with money

IS THE Montreal Protocol an international treaty committed to the task of protecting the earth's endangered -- and getting closer to the point of no return day by day -- ozone shield? Or is it a clever trap to hold the developing world captive to those who created much of the mess in the first place -- the multinational corporations (MNCs)?

Selfish interests in the guise of altruism

NOW THAT developing countries such as India have agreed to respect the Montreal Protocol and phase out the use of ozone-depleting substances, the North is beginning to bare its fangs -- or, more correctly, its dollars. For long, Western diplomats and negotiators have argued that the Montreal Protocol is an excellent model for further environmental agreements. On the contrary, the Montreal Protocol is flawed to the core. Pushed by the US and the UK, it respects economic interests more than good environmental governance.

What's the panic all about?

RESEARCHERS working on ozone depletion are being attacked increasingly by critics who say the fears they have aroused concerning ozone depletion due to release of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are all part of a politically motivated sham.

The will is there, but not the funds

GOADED by developed countries, the Union ministry of environment and forests (MEF) has prepared the first draft of the India Country Programme, which details the phase-out schedule of ozone depleting substances (ODS) under the Montreal Protocol. According to the programme, the switchover, which will take till 2010 to effect, will cost an estimated $1.639 billion (at 1993 rates).

Panel to smooth North-South squabbles on GEF

THE NEW Global Environment Facility (GEF) fund is getting bogged down by wrangles over how to distinguish between national and international benefits in environmental projects. After disagreements surfaced at a GEF-sponsored workshop in Delhi in February, GEF administrator Ian Johnson proposed setting up a special committee to thrash out the problem and submit its report to the next GEF meeting in June in Beijing.

Drop in consumption level of CFCs, halons

BETWEEN 1986 and 1990, the total consumption of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by industrialised countries dropped from 971,342 tonnes to 636,588 tonnes -- a fall of 34 per cent. The industrialised countries' halon consumption, too, has fallen from 198,609 tonnes to 151,700 tonnes. Meanwhile, the CFC consumption of developing countries, which have got a grace period for phase-out of ozone-depleting substances, has increased from 18,791 tonnes to 26,193 tonnes, an increase of 39 per cent.