China will continue to help protect the ozone layer by developing and producing substitutes for ozone-depleting substances used in manufacturing, an environmental official said yesterday.

Liu Yi, director-general of the State Environmental Protection Administration's Foreign Economic Co-operation Office, said China will stop the production of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by the end of 2010 by dismantling production lines in 37 CFC-producing enterprises across the country.

China will comprehensively implement the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, which aims to phase out the use of ozone-depleting substances such as CFCs and halon, he told an international conference in Beijing on the phasing-out of CFCs in China.

The production of ozone-depleting substances was banned in developed countries in 1996. Since then, China has eliminated the largest amount of ozone-depleting substances among developing countries.

Another administration official in charge of pollution control said China - the largest producer and consumer of CFCs - has joined the Montreal Protocol Multilateral Fund and carried out a national plan for the phasing-out of ozone-depleting substances. More than 40 policies and regulations have been implemented in China to control the production, consumption, import and export of such substances, said the official on condition of not being identified.

The official said overall elimination plans have been carried out in connection with CFCs, tobacco, air-conditioners and detergent production in China.

The Montreal Protocol Multilateral Fund, United Nations (UN) Environment Program, UN Industrial Development Organization and World Bank have provided about US$700 million to help China phase out and find substitutes for ozone-depleting substances.

Such substances have been widely used for refrigerators, aerosol propellants and expansion agents in tobacco production since the 1930s.

Halon, another ozone-depleting substance, is used mainly as a fire-extinguishing agent. These substances can stay in the atmosphere for decades.

The depletion of the ozone layer will negatively affect people's health and harm agricultural production.

The production and consumption of ozone-depleting substances in the past several decades have caused substantial damage to the ozone layer.

Two holes in the ozone layer have been discovered over the Antarctic and the Arctic.

The international community agreed on the Vienna Convention in 1985 and the Montreal Protocol in 1987 to try to control the problem.

The UN decided in 1995 to mark September 16 as International Ozone Day.

(China Daily April 22, 2003)