| Excerpted
from the United Nations News Service: 29 November 2004 – Key decisions were made at the 16th meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol which ended at the weekend in Prague, Czech Republic. These included requests for so called “critical use exemptions” for methyl bromide for farmers in the developed world, including Australia, Europe and the United States, who claim that the current alternatives in some places and for certain crops, such as strawberries and tomatoes, are not sufficiently effective. Under an agreement made in the mid-1990s, the chemical is scheduled for a full phase out in developed world agriculture next year. In 1991 consumption of methyl bromide was around 63,800 tons. The Parties in Prague agreed to exemptions totaling just over 2,600 tons for 2005 in addition to just over 12,150 tons agreed to at a special meeting in March this year. Based on recommendations by the scientific and technical panels to the Protocol, it was agreed to grant developed world farmers a total of just over 11,700 tons-worth of exemptions in 2006. “The Montreal Protocol is without doubt one of the most successful, global, environment treaties and has been strengthened by the political commitment show here in Prague,” said Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of UNEP, which hosts the Ozone Secretariat at its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. “Indeed, I was pleased to note that throughout our discussions all Governments stated clearly that they had every intention to phase out methyl bromide and that these critical use exemptions are temporary measures.” |
Here's how the Boston Globe saw it (excerpted from an editorial):
THE MONTREAL Protocol to protect the ozone layer is the most successful
international environmental treaty in history. But last week the Bush
administration worked to undercut it by insisting on exemptions for US
users of a pesticide that is harmful both to the ozone layer -- which
protects the earth from ultraviolet radiation, a cause of skin cancer --
and to the farm workers who apply it.
Since the signing of the treaty by the United States during the Reagan administration, methyl bromide use worldwide has been reduced to 30 percent of its 1991 level. The treaty called for its total elimination by Jan. 1, 2005, except for certain limited uses that treaty signers could agree are "critical." But growers of strawberries, tomatoes, and other crops pushed the Bush administration and other governments to seek exemptions during talks in Prague last week. The United States, the world's biggest user of methyl bromide, won permission last year to produce the pesticide at 35 percent of the country's 1991 level. Last week the protocol's technical committee agreed to increase that to 37 percent in 2005 but called for a provisional reduction to 27 percent in 2006. "Dramatic progress has been achieved over the past 15 years in eliminating CFCs and other ozone-destroying chemicals," said Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, earlier this year. "But the task remains unfinished, as demonstrated by delays in phasing out methyl bromide more completely." Instead of seeking an end run around the treaty, the Bush administration should work harder with US growers to explore, test, and apply alternatives to methyl bromide. At a time when the United States is being criticized internationally for opposing treaties to curb global warming, land mines, and international crimes, it should at least be a leader, not a foot-dragger, on the ozone accord. |