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Paris, France, 22 April 2010, Earth Day -- As the curtain is now fully raised on the world stage in which ozone depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and halons are no longer produced, three journalists have received top honours from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) for their reporting on ozone depletion and climate issues.

While the phase-out of these ozone-destroying chemicals is a global success story that is unfolding under the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, some significant challenges remain – not the least of which is the forthcoming phase-out of hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs). Although less harmful to the ozone layer than the CFCs which they replaced, many of these chemicals are also very potent greenhouse gases.

The links and interconnections between the two environmental challenges of climate change and ozone depletion have been explored and exposed to the public by the winning journalists in the first competition of its kind organised by the UNEP DTIE OzonAction Programme, in cooperation with UNEP Division of Communication and Public Information (DCPI) and UNEP’s Regional Offices.

The competition encouraged journalists from developing countries to submit recently published articles that represent the best reporting on interlinked ozone and climate change issues. UNEP’s Regional OzonAction teams organized jury panels consisting of experts from the print media, environmental fields, education professionals and professors of university journalism courses.  The selection criteria for the winning articles including the interest of the topics covered, the quality and depth of the writing, and the clarity of article in conveying the ozone and climate story to the general public.

The results are:

Winners:

• Mr. Essa Alkhroussi “Ozone is Recovering in the Sultanate” (Oman Daily, Oman)
• Mr. Alejandro Balaguer, “Ozono a Salvo” (La Prensa de Panamá – Section Vivir+, Panama)
• Mr. Umesh Kumar Raghuwanshi, No Option: Switch to CFC –free ACs (Hindustan Times, India)

Honourable mention:

• Mr. Nirmal Ghosh, Two Treaties, with a Planet at Stake (Singapore Strait Times, Singapore)
• Ms. Farah Ateat, Restore the Ozone Layer to Recover - a Difficult Task but not Impossible (Alghad  ALardni, Jordan)
• Ms. Priscilla Priyanka Govind, Fiji’s Response to Ozone Depletion (Free lance journalist, Fiji)

The winners are offered a travelling fellowship to neighbouring countries to facilitate the research and preparation of a follow-up story on the subject related to ozone layer protection and its linkage with climate change.