I am pleased to inform you that the theme for this year's International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer is For Life on Earth: Buy Ozone-Friendly. This International Day, commemorated around the world on 16 September, offers an opportunity to focus global attention and action on this vital environmental issue.

We would like to take this opportunity to encourage you to build on the success of the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, by undertaking activities which would raise public and political awareness of this issue.

Some of the practical ways in which you can celebrate this important annual event include:

• Promoting the phase-out of CFCs in all government offices and industrial enterprises;

• Placing legislative restrictions on trade in ozone-depleting substances and in products containing these substances with a view to implementing the phase-out;

• Involving consumer organizations in campaigns to promote ozone-safe products;

• Launching a special postage stamp issue;

• Granting recognition and honours to industries which are phasing out ozonedepleting substances;

• Granting recognition and honours to scientists, technologists, media workers, non-governmental organizations and administrators who are assisting in the phase-out of ozone-depleting substances;

• Publicizing articles in the print media which highlight the obligation to implement the control measures, the availability of ozone-safe products and the illegal trade in ozone-depleting chemicals;

• Holding scientific and technological conferences and meetings to discuss ways and means of protecting the ozone layer;

• Organizing competitions in schools on awareness of the ozone problem;

• Involving non-governmental organizations in these activities, and encouraging them to take their own initiatives.

We would be grateful for a report on the various activities undertaken in your county in connection with the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer.

Yours sincerely,

Klaus Töpfer
Executive Director

Error processing SSI file