UAE is active in protection of the ozone layer, and Higher Education supports the State’s programs

This year (2015), the world is celebrating the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, which falls on September 16th, under the theme "Ozone: All there is between you and UV", as it marks the 30th anniversary of the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, and the slogan of "30 Years of Healing the Ozone Together" will be raised to support the theme of International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer 2015. The UAE is preparing to host the 27th Meeting of the Parties of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, from (1 - 5) November 2015, in Dubai. The UAE, since joining the Vienna Convention and the Montreal Protocol in 1989, has developed a package of measures to meet its obligations in the Convention and the Protocol and its amendments and the resolutions of the conferences of State Parties. It focused on the development of legislations and regulations to organize the trade of substances that deplete the Ozone Layer, and control procedures on the import and export of such material, and the UAE has been able to meet its obligations by the total prohibition of CFC and halons substances in 2010. The UAE has set a national program based on its successful experience in getting rid of CFCs and halons, whereby freezing the consumption of HCFC compounds as of 2013, in preparation for conducting the gradual reduction in 2015 for these compounds up to the final ban in 2040, and it ordered all those dealing with equipment and compounds that deplete the Ozone Layer to obtain official permission for each import of any controlled substances. The UAE’s institutions and universities are active in supporting this program and working within its framework, and the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, upon the directives of His Excellency Sheikh Hamdan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, supports research and related projects, including the research "Monitoring and analysis of the concentration of ozone in the layered air using the recycling model" , which is funded by the Ministry within the collaborative research funding program between the universities and industry. UAE University has recently organized a panel discussion "on the occasion of the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer", where lecturers gave a brief introduction about the ozone layer and its composition, and the causes of the ozone hole and the stages that it went through, along with the effects that ensue, and the causes of pollution and its relation to the ozone hole.
 Dr. Ahmed Murad presented the findings of a research experiment that tested the concentrations of gases in different places of Al Ain City, which showed excellent results commensurate with local and international standards. A report issued by the World Meteorological Organization shows that the ozone layer has begun to recover, because of the phase-out, since the eighties of the last century, of some chemical ozone-depleting substances, and it grew thicker in recent years, and that the ozone hole is on its way to disappear and close up in 2050.