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Responding to the apparent contradiction between the aims of the Kyoto Protocol to lower greenhouse gas emissions and the Montreal Protocol to lower ozone damaging gases the United Nation's top climate change and environmental officials said that "International efforts to safeguard Earth's climate and protect the ozone layer are mutually supportive."

The announcment comes as negotiations on the future direction of the Montreal Protocol in protecting the ozone layer kicked off in Montreal this week, ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference set for Bali in December will shape further climate action beyond 2012, when the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol ends.

Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, said:
"The Montreal Protocol is successfully assisting in the repair and recovery of the ozone layer. The Kyoto Protocol is tackling perhaps the greatest challenge of our generation – climate change. However, what is also emerging in 2007, and emerging with ever greater clarity, is that both treaties are mutually supportive across several key fronts."

The Kyoto Protocol's clean development mechanism (CDM) has led to the destruction of large volumes of the very potent greenhouse gas HFC-23, a by-product of the production of the coolant HCFC-22 (which replaced CFCs in the late 1980s), and is currently the only reliable mechanism available to prevent emissions of this gas in the short term, according to a new report by the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel (TEAP) of the Montreal Protocol to be released in Montreal this week.

"The Kyoto Protocol's CDM is assisting to destroy HFCs. Meanwhile, governments here in Montreal look set to back an accelerated freeze and phase-out of HCFCs, with important benefits for the ozone layer and also for climate change," Mr. Steiner added.

"This kind of cooperation underlines the importance of the UN and its related environmental agreements, demonstrating in clear and concrete terms how, by combining their strengths, they can more efficiently and cost effectively realise the sustainability goals of our time," said Mr. Steiner.

Parties to the Kyoto Protocol decided in Montreal in 2005 that the CDM should not lead to an increase in HCFC-22, a gas regulated by the Montreal Protocol.

Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, said:
"The Parties to the Kyoto Protocol have been guided by the dual objective of safeguarding the climate and protecting the ozone layer when shaping climate action. This dual objective has also guided the regulation applied to the generation of CDM carbon market credits from the destruction of HFC-23 in older refrigerant factories. New plants and expanded production do not qualify under the CDM."

Parties to the Kyoto Protocol will consider in Bali in December if and then how the CDM could also provide incentives for the destruction of HFC-23 in new plants, without stimulating production of the refrigerant HCFC-22, and will take the findings of the TEAP report into account. "The worst of all cases would be for HFC-23 emissions to go unmitigated," according to the TEAP report.

"Steps to accelerate the phase-out of HCFCs under the Montreal Protocol would make a significant contribution to the global effort to address climate change. The potential in this area is very encouraging and, when combined with significant opportunities to reduce emissions from other sectors, such as energy, buildings and deforestation, demonstrates that solutions to the climate threat are available. The Bali conference needs to put in motion a global campaign to capture all of these opportunities and the Montreal Protocol can continue to make a contribution, building on its past successes," said Mr. de Boer.