 Hello there, and welcome to another Issues and Answers of Production of the National Television Network and the Government Information Service. I'm your host for this edition, Jesse Leance from the Department of Sustainable Development within the Ministry of Education, Sustainable Development, Innovation, Science, Technology and Vocational Training. Thursday 16th September 2021, St. Lucia joins the rest of the world to observe the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer. From 1994, that was 27 years ago, the 16th of September has been observed as a day to promote activities that support the objectives of the Vienna Convention and its Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. And since then, St. Lucia has registered its own achievements in this regard. We have successfully met several targets as a signatory. Joining me in studio this time around from St. Lucia's Ozone Unit within the Department of Sustainable Development for a sit-down is Ms. Shanna Scott. Thank you so much, Ms. Scott, for joining us. It's a pleasure to be here. Wonderful. First of all, tell us a little bit about the Ozone Layer and why interventions took place at the international level to preserve it. Okay, so the Ozone Layer is a protective layer, a protective shield that's located between 15 to 45 kilometers above the Earth's surface. And what it does, it filters or protect us from harmful ultraviolet or UV rays. Now these rays can have adverse consequences not only for human health, but also for plants and animal life. So what happened is in the 1970s, scientists discovered that there was a group of chemicals that was damaging the Ozone Layer and they later become known as ozone-depleting substances. So internationally, the international community, they rallied and they agreed to phase out these group of chemicals, which led to the signing of the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the Ozone Layer. Okay, now, speak to us about these substances. What substances or chemicals deplete the Ozone Layer? Okay, so they are madmen chemicals containing halogens, for example, chlorine and bromine, sorry, that will determine to be the cause of this damage. And collectively, as I mentioned before, they are known as ozone-depleting substances. One group of these chemicals are known as chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs for short. And back then, they were very popular and they could have been found widely in air conditioners and refrigerators. Also the another group of chemicals called hydrochlorocarbons or its CFCs, also methylbromides and halons are also proven to be ozone-depleting substances. And these chemicals could be found in a wide variety of products that we use in our everyday life. For example, computers, electronics and parts, car dashboards, even shoe soles these chemicals will use to make also a lot of fruits and vegetables will fumigate it with methylbromide to kill pests. Wow, so what exactly happens in the atmosphere because it's an invisible and invisible layer? So what exactly happens when these chemicals are let out into the air? What happens to the atmosphere, the ozone layer? Okay, so if we take for example a CFC molecule or CFCs when they release into the atmosphere. As was mentioned, CFCs contain chlorine. So when it's released into the atmosphere, it's absorbed by UV radiation and a chlorine atom is released. Now one chlorine atom has the potential of damaging 100,000 ozone molecules. So when it's released into the atmosphere and it causes so much damage, it's upsets the natural balance or the natural chemical reactions taking place in the atmosphere because there are a lot of chemical reactions taking place in the atmosphere because there are other chemicals in the atmosphere as we learn at school. But what happens is that the rate of destruction is found ways the rate of the creation of ozone which leads to the thinning or damage of the ozone layer. Okay, now this is what's happening to the ozone layer. What effects does this depletion have on life on Earth, human and other? Okay, so that's a very good question. So increased UV exposure reaching the Earth has been linked to increased cases of skin cancer for humans and also eye cataracts. Also, there's consequences for plant life in that you may get lower yielding crops and also animal life. If you look at, for example, increased UV radiation in the ocean can kill five to plant, which is the first block of the marine food chain. So there's dire consequences for human health, plant, animal life, but also stuff that we may not, things that we may not think of. For example, I'm sure if you have your car and it's sprayed over a period of time, you may see that it's losing color. But we may not attribute that to increased exposure to UV radiation, but that actually what's happened as it eats away on the pains of our cars. Interesting. So not all doom and gloom. There has actually been work done in the last couple of decades. I understand that the work that has happened through the Montreal Protocol has been one of the most successful, unified approaches taken on the global scale through the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer in 1987. We had all 197 countries of the world committed to eliminating the use of the ozone depleting substances. Speak to us in the national context. What has, what progress has St. Lucia made in terms of achieving targets of the protocol? OK, so St. Lucia became a party to the Montreal Protocol in July of 1993. And since then we have committed to phasing out ozone depleting substances in line with the international phased out targets, not well by 2030. Not only that, we've had major successes in that in 2008, for example, we phased out completely the first group of ozone depleting substances, CFCs, as was mentioned before. And that was a great feat for us because we did it two years ahead of the international schedule, which was 2010. Also, from 2011, we have done work to phase out the second group of ozone depleting substances, it's CFCs. And right now we're at a 49% reduction, which is we're ahead of the schedule, whereas we're supposed to be at 45% in 2020. So we can see right now that we're going on our way to phasing out ozone depleting substances. Also, we have put in place regulations for the import and export of these substances, also a quota and licensing system that will help guide and govern us. We've also trained refrigeration technicians, our local refrigeration technician, in good management practices, which would help in eliminating or reducing the amount of ozone depleting substances that gets into the atmosphere when servicing these equipment. And also we've trained custom surface shells to help prevent illegal trade of these substances on our borders. Okay, thanks for that. We're speaking to Ms. Shana Scott from the National Ozone Unit, ahead of the observance of the International Day for the preservation of the ozone layer. We're talking ozone depleting substances, what St. Lucia has done so far as a signatory to the Vienna Convention and its Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer. We are due for a break. When we come back, we're going to get into the role of the Department of Sustainable Development in this national effort to eliminate ozone depleting substances and also speak on the progress that St. Lucia has been making more specifically in terms of this year's theme, the international theme for the International Day for the preservation of the ozone layer. Stay with us. Think about the children. Think about the children. How will we save them? Chemicals and GMOs are not the solution. Use organic and join. Excessive agrochemical use, additives and genetically modified foods are harmful to health and the environment. Join the Good Food Revolution. Grow, buy and consume organic. This is from Ryan St. Lucia and the Ministry of Sustainable Development with funding from the GEF Small Grants Program, UNDP. Thank you so much for staying with us. This is an edition of Issues and Answers on the GIS NTN and we are bringing to you word on the observance, the International Day for the preservation of the ozone layer. We're speaking to someone from the National Ozone Unit and the person of Ms. Shana Scott. Before going to break, we were just speaking on the effects of ozone-depleting substances on the ozone layer as well as the interventions that have been made in the last 30 years or so close to 30 years to reverse the damage that has so far been done. A work going on by every single country around the world and St. Lucia has also been registering some success, quite a bit of success in terms of its part in meeting targets of the Vienna Convention and its Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer. Ms. Scott, I want to ask, what is the role of the Department of Sustainable Development? We know that is the department from which your unit, the National Ozone Unit, operates from. Speak to us about the department and its role in this national effort to eliminate ozone-depleting substances. Okay, so the Department of Sustainable Development is the focal point for a number of international multilateral environmental agreements, including the Montreal Protocol. The National Ozone Unit, which is housed within the department, is responsible for the day-to-day activities that will help us to meet our Montreal Protocol phase-out targets. Such activities include enforcement of our legislation with the help of key agencies like the Department of Commerce and the Customs and Excise Dispartment, the training and certification of our local air-conditioning and refrigeration technicians, also training of enforcement officers, and of course implementation of public education and awareness activities. So the public is aware of what's going on and how they can get involved. Wonderful. The theme for this year's observance of the International Day for the preservation of the ozone layer is the Montreal Protocol keeping us, our food, and our vaccines cool. It obviously draws focus on the significance of refrigerants in the air-conditioning and refrigeration industries. Now we know the cold chain is critical to the preservation of food and medicines. We're in a global pandemic and that is heightened not only in conversation about vaccines, but also the importance of getting food to certain parts of the world. What progress has St. Lucia made or is making, rather, to ensure that the cooling system that sectors and residents, the country, benefits from are sustainable or eco-friendly? Okay, so we have been promoting more, not only ozone, but climate-friendly options or alternatives when it comes to cooling and not only that, we have started training our local refrigeration technicians to use these alternatives safely. Also, we are working to finalize St. Lucia's national cooling strategy, which would introduce minimum performance standards and what that means in general is that we want to ensure that the equipment that comes in is not only efficient, but it will not waste energy and that it will not put a dent in our pocket at the end of the day. Okay, now speak to us about the other work that is ongoing. I know in addition to that, in terms of the response, in terms of introducing more sustainable eco-friendly apparatus for cooling systems, what other work is happening by the National Ozone Unit under and through the Montreal Protocol right now? Okay, well, I cannot speak about the Montreal Protocol without speaking about the Kigali Amendment, which is the most recent amendment to the Montreal Protocol. Now, to put it into context, the substitutes or the replacements for the CFCs and the HCFCs that are being replaced are hydrofluorocatons or HFCs. Now, HFCs are not ozone-depleting substances, but they are greenhouse gases with very high greenhouse global warming potential, which means they have that ability to trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere. And I'm sure by that you can deduce that they would in effect contribute to global warming and climate change. Therefore, in October 2016, Parties to the Montreal Protocol agreed to sign on to the, well to pass the thought to adopt the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, which will now call to phase down the use of HFCs. So, what we have been doing, CMUSHA is not a party, but we have taken step first to ratify. For example, we implemented activities into a project called the Kigali Amendment Enabling Activities Project, and the activities, as the name suggests, would enable us to ratify the amendment. And we're happy to report that earlier this year, April 2021, we received approval from Cabinet to ratify this amendment. So, CMUSHA soon, hopefully by the end of the year, we should have ratified the Kigali Amendment. So, as you can see, the Montreal Protocol is wearing more than one cap now. We're not only protecting the ozone layer, but we're also contributing to mitigating the effects of climate change. Okay. Now, there's quite a bit of work ongoing. You've been with the ozone unit from 2015, a lot of work happening, and we know even prior to that, countries all over the world have been working assiduously to ensure that they are in alignment with the Montreal Protocol, the Vienna Convention overall. Is this work simply helping to stop further depletion of the ozone layer, or is it helping to reverse the effects that we've so far imposed on the ozone layer? Okay. So, if we go back to what we first stated that there's always chemical reactions going on in the ozone layer, it's just that with these ozone depleting substances, these ODSs, that it's disrupting the chain of events, that there's more damage taking place than the creation of ozone. So, in eliminating these chemicals from the atmosphere as the Montreal Protocol has aided, there have been research that has proven that the ozone layer has now began healing itself since the implementation of the Montreal Protocol, so much so that by middle century, they have estimated that the ozone layer would be recovered. So, that's one of the reasons why the Montreal Protocol is deemed such a huge environmental success around the globe, and also just to note that the Montreal Protocol has successfully phased out 98% of ozone-depleting substances. Wonderful. How can St. Lucien's get more involved? Because the first question is, can we reverse this? The question is, with that and climate change, can we reverse these hard effects? But now, how can St. Lucien's get involved? How can St. Lucien's move in on this movement, this cause to eliminate ozone-depleting substances, particularly HCFCs by 2030? Okay. So, sometimes we might hear about an issue and think that it's so far from us and probably we cannot get involved, but there are a number of steps that I took note of that we can all take part in. For example, we can protect ourselves and our families by wearing sunscreen when we go out, also protect our eyes by wearing sunglasses or probably wearing long sleeves when we go out. Also, to take care of our equipment, our refrigeration and our conditioning equipment at home, also, we should note that older equipment, older refrigeration equipment that we have do contain ozone-depleting substances because probably when we purchase them, these protocols had not come into effect. So, we want to ensure that when we're disposing of these equipment that we do it in a safe and sound manner that protects our environment on Earth and also the ozone layer. And also, we have the purchasing power. We have the power to drive the market. So, when we purchase new refrigeration equipment, we could look for the label that says ozone-friendly or climate-friendly. Also, there's labels such as CFC-free, it's CFC-free, energy efficient. So, when we buy these, we not only protect the environment but we're also protecting our pocket because they consume less energy. So, we do our part as well by being a sustainable consumer. And finally, if we have equipment, refrigeration equipment that's damaged, we could also check them for leaks as well. So, if we know that there's a leak or it's damaged, we should ensure that it's repaired first before it's recharged to prevent ozone-depleting substances from getting into the environment. And also, we did mention that we train refrigeration technicians so ensure that you use a certified technician from the government when servicing. So, they're issued a technician ID card so you can always ask them when they come to present their technician ID card so you know that they've gone through the suitable training that will enable them to handle your equipment safely. Wonderful, Shana. It has been a pleasure having you here and giving us all of this information as we come upon the 16th of September, the International Day for the preservation of the ozone layer. I'd like to thank you, our viewers, for watching. Shana, thank you again. My name is Jesse Leon signing off for now. We do hope that you can take this information, read up a little bit more, go onto a browser and get some more information on the work that not only St. Lucia is doing but countries around the world in adherence to the Vienna Convention and its Montreal Protocol on Substances that deplete the ozone layer. Quite a bit of work has been happening to reverse the effects and to heal our ozone layer so that we can have a better Earth, right? Thank you very much, Shana Scott from the National Ozone Unit. My name is Jesse Leon signing off for now. Do stay tuned for more programming on NTN and goodbye. Take care.