Eleven Chinese provinces and cities pledged on Friday to phase out major ozone depleting substances (ODS) by next July, paving the way for nationwide participation one year later.

The programme, initiated by the Guangdong city, includes the revision of the policies, laws and regulations on production, sales and use of ODS, severely cracking down the illegal production of ODS and encouraging the production of ODS substitutes.

At a celebration marking the 11th International Ozone Day yesterday, the city also called upon the rest of the country to sign up and accelerate the phase-out process.

China, once a big producer and consumer of ODS, made a promise at the event to halt production and consumption of both chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) and halons by July 1, 2007, two and half years ahead of the previous schedule.

CFCs are used as aerosol gases and refrigerants while halons are used mainly as a fire-extinguishing medium, both are deemed harmful to the already thin ozone layer.

Zhang Lijun, vice-minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration, said China has a strong capability for the development and production of ODS substitutes, the supply of which could meet domestic demands.

The Chinese mainland's production and consumption of CFCs last year fell by 47 per cent and 70 per cent, respectively, when compared with the averages from 1997 to 1999. The production and consumption of halons has dropped 92 per cent, according to Zhang.

These achievements should be attributed to the joint efforts of the concerned departments and institutions on the mainland as well as some international organizations, he added.

So far, the mainland has won 40 per cent (US$760 million) of the total funding from a UN organized multilateral fund, to finance more than 400 projects to eliminate ODS. The fund is a financial mechanism created to help developing countries meet the agreed incremental costs of fulfilling the control measures required by the Montreal Protocol.

The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer came into existence in 1987, calling for a halt to the production and consumption of compounds that deplete the ozone layer. China signed up in 1991.

According to a recent report by Journal of Geophysical Research, some American scientists were quoted as saying that the depletion of the ozone layer is slowing down.

Ozone, a molecule of oxygen, is a stratospheric shield for life on Earth. It filters out dangerous ultraviolet rays from the Sun that can cause skin cancer and cataracts.

(China Daily September 17, 2005)