The government has got a commitment of $8.3 million (around Rs 720.93 million) grant under the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

"Nepal has received a commitment of $2.7 million grant for biodiversity, $4 grant for climate change and $1.6 million grant for land degradation," chief of foreign assistance division

under the finance ministry Lal Shankar Ghimire briefed the Global Environment Facility's sixth constituency meeting of South Asia held in Maldives.

The Montreal Protocol led to a global phase-out of most substances that deplete the ozone layer, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). A happy side-effect of the gradual ban of these products is that the Earth’s climate has also benefited because CFCs are also potent greenhouse gases.

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) is emerging as a hot issue in preparations for June’s Rio conference, styled as a once-in-a-generation chance to restore a sick planet to good health.

The US is fighting a proposal, backed according to France by least 100 countries, for transforming UNEP from a poorly noticed, second-string unit into a planetary super-agency.

Environmentalists have long complained that Nairobi-based UNEP, set up in 1972 as an office of the UN and with a membership of only 58 nations, lacks clout to deal with the globe’s worsening ills.

Speaking at the Ministerial segment of the 9th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Vienna Convention and the 23rd Meeting of the Parties (MOP) to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer held in Bali, 24-25 November, Minister of State Mr.

Government of the Maldives showcased its success story in ozone protection and achieving carbon neutrality in a side event organized by the Ministry of Housing and Environment of Maldives in cooperation with the OzonAction Programme of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on 24th November 2011 in Bali, Indonesia.

This event was held during the 23rd Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer from 21 to 25 November 2011.

Modernization should not lead to destruction. It must improve the quality of life, said Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit at a function on International Day for the preservation of Ozone Layer.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister underlined the need to work without ozone-depleting substances. In case the ozone layer gets depleted, increased penetration of ultraviolet radiation will have profound impact on all the living creatures, including human and plant life.