Global warming fight may get boost from ozone plan

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO (Reuters) - Countries can take a big and easy step this year to combat climate change by agreeing to tighten a U.N. treaty outlawing gases that damage the ozone layer, the U.N. Environment Programme said on Friday.

Most efforts to cut greenhouse gases focus on axing use of fossil fuels such as coal and oil, with everyone from leaders of major industrialised nations to rock stars lining up this year to urge deeper cuts and shifts to cleaner energies.

But UNEP said the 1987 Montreal Protocol on ozone may take one of the biggest steps to reduce climate change this year if nations agree at talks in September to speed up the phase-out of HCFCs, used in refrigerants. HCFCs destroy ozone and are also powerful greenhouse gases.

"In combating climate change there are many 'quick wins'," said Achim Steiner, head of UNEP, noting simple measures such as a phase-out of old-fashioned, incandescent light bulbs or steps to boost the energy efficiency of buildings.

"Perhaps heads of state might want to consider adding an accelerated phase out of HCFCs to a 'quick win' climate list," he told Reuters.

He noted that U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will host a high level international meeting on climate change in New York on September 24, just after the 191-nation meeting in Montreal, Canada, on September 17-21 to discuss extra ozone layer protection.

The Montreal Protocol banned chemicals, once common from hairsprays to refrigerants, that were thinning the ozone layer shielding the planet from damaging ultra-violet rays that can cause skin cancer. UNEP says the ozone layer is now on track to recover to its pre-1980 thickness by 2050-75.

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