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🌏🌏🌏🌏 Ozone layer on path to full recovery, U.N. weather body says

The world's ozone layer is on "the road to long-term recovery" despite a destructive volcanic eruption in the South Pacific, the World Meteorological Organization said this week, after efforts to phase out ozone-depleting chemicals.

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On current trends, the ozone layer is on track to recover to 1980 levels by around 2066 over the Antarctic, 2045 over the Arctic and 2040 for the rest of the world, the United Nations agency stated in a press release.

The hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica is seen in a series of satellite images over a 21-year time span. The hole may actually close within 50 years as the level of destructive ozone-depleting CFCs in the atmosphere is now declining, one of the world's leading atmospheric scientist [Paul Fraser] from the Australian government's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) said on September 17, 2002. [Fraser said he had measured a decline in ozone-destroying gases since 2000. The ozone layer protects the earth from the sun's ultraviolet radiation, which is linked to skin cancer and other health risks.

The Montreal Protocol, which came into effect in 1989, agreed to phase out chlorofluorocarbons and other ozone-depleting substances, and its success "stands out as a powerful symbol of hope" at a time when multilateral cooperation has come under strain, said U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.