The Ozone Technical Office (OTOZ) is promoting an action plan in view of the 30th anniversary of its constitution on 16 September, coinciding with the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer.

In coordination with the provincial specialists implementing the national programme against this thin layer that covers the Earth from the Sun’s ultraviolet radiation, the activities will be carried out throughout the year.

Helen Rodríguez, communications specialist at the Centre for Information Management and Energy Development (CUBAENERGÍA), told the Cuban News Agency that the campaign includes workshops, seminars, conferences and inventories of air conditioning and refrigeration equipment.

In addition, courses on good practices, children’s competitions, festivals, painting exhibitions, reforestation, environmental sanitation in coastal areas, the «16 de septiembre» football cup, newsletters and circles of interest, among others, with the support of the nation’s institutions.

The International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer has been celebrated since 1995, proclaimed a year earlier by the United Nations General Assembly in commemoration of the date of the signing of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.

Cuba is a signatory to the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer (1985) and the Montreal Protocol (1987), related to the control and gradual elimination of the production and consumption of environmentally harmful industrial chemicals.

With a deep-rooted environmental vocation, it is committed to the protection of the Ozone Layer and ratified its commitment in 1992 with actions for its preservation.

Thus, it ratified its obligation with the Kigali Amendment and has designed a National Reduction Plan for hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) until 2045.

CUBAENERGIA is an entity belonging to the Agency of Nuclear Energy and Advanced Technologies (Aenta) of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment.