§ Mr. SayeedTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what progress was made by the parties to the Montreal protocol at their third meeting; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. TrippierThe third meeting of the parties to the Montreal protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer took place in Nairobi from 19 to 21 June. Good progress was made in setting stronger mandates for the protocol's technological and economic assessment panels to consider the implications for a 1997 phase-out of substances that deplete the ozone layer, and to review the control measures agreed at the London meeting in 1990.
The United Kingdom will play a leading role in the work of the working groups set up under the Montreal protocol to examine and recommend further changes to the protocol when it is reviewed next year at the fourth meeting of the parties.
More than 70 countries are now parties to the protocol. The meeting welcomed the announcement from China that it would accede to the protocol. The parties also agreed to increase the size of the interim multilateral fund established one year ago at the London meeting to $200 million, and approved over $9 million of projects to be undertaken in 1991 by the World bank, United Nations Environment Programme and the United Nations Development Programme to support developing countries to phase out their use of ozone-depleting substances.