The ozone layer shows signs of recovery

A United Nations study found evidence that the ozone layer, which protects Earth from ultraviolet rays, is beginning to recover after years of depletion.

Scientists believe the good news is the result of a global ban imposed in the 1980s on chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), the chemicals used in refrigerators and aerosol sprays.

The report’s authors say this is an environmental success story thanks to international action and that the same level of urgency and unity must be directed at tackling climate change.

“We have started to do the right thing to get the atmosphere back to what it was before the start of the industrial revolution,” NASA scientist Ken Jucks told the BBC.

It is estimated that thanks to the 1987 Montreal Protocol that banned chemicals that are harmful to the ozone layer, two million cases of skin cancer will be prevented annually by 2030, according to the United Nations Environment Program.

The positive data on the ozone layer come, by contrast, after learning to accumulate a record of carbon dioxide (C02) in the atmosphere, according to the World Meteorological Organization.