Ozone Layer Healing, U.N. Says

AFP-Jiji

16:36 JST, October 3, 2025

GENEVA (AFP-Jiji) — The Earth’s protective ozone layer is healing and the hole should fully disappear in coming decades, the U.N. said last month, hailing the success of concerted international action.

A fresh report from the U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization highlighted that the ozone hole over the Antarctic was smaller in 2024 than in recent years, in what it said was “welcome scientific news for people’s and planetary health.”

The WMO said as it published its Ozone Bulletin 2024 that the declined depletion “was partially due to naturally occurring atmospheric factors which drive year-to-year fluctuations.”

But, it stressed that the long-term positive trend witnessed “reflects the success of concerted international action.”

The bulletin was issued to mark World Ozone Day and the 40th anniversary of the Vienna Convention, which first recognized stratospheric ozone depletion as a global problem.