Turkey reduces imported substances damaging Ozone Layer, says Environment Ministry

ANKARA - Anadolu Agency

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Turkey is set to sharply cut its imports of substances that damage the Ozone layer, due to the United Nations’ Montreal Protocol, the Environment Ministry has announced.

Turkey decreased its yearly quota of the import of substances that deplete the Ozone Layer from 2,300 tons to 500 tons in 2015, based on the U.N.’s Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, which Turkey has been a signatory of since 1991, according to a written statement issued by the Environment and Urbanization Ministry. 

Environment Minister İdris Güllüce said they had been imposing a quota on these damaging substances since 2009. While this quota was 2,300 tons in 2014, it was decreased to 500 tons for 2015. 

Güllüce said the details of the 2015 importing quota would be distributed in February by the Economy Ministry to companies that are registered to import these substances. 

While the statement said national and international works to abide by the Montreal Protocol were being followed and coordinated in Turkey, the entrance of such substances would henceforth only be allowed through specialized customs posts around the country, in order to more closely monitor them. 

The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was designed to reduce the production and consumption of ozone depleting substances in order to reduce their abundance in the atmosphere, and thereby protect the earth’s fragile Ozone Layer. The original Montreal Protocol was agreed on Sept. 16, 1987 and entered into force on Jan. 1, 1989.