Egypt contributes 0.6 percent of the world's ozone-depleting emissions, according to a report published Tuesday by the government's statistics body.

 

The country's greenhouse gas emissions dropped from 0.71 to 0.63 percent from 2009 to 2011, according to the report from the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS), which was issued to mark the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer.

 

The occasion is in remembrance of the signing of the Montreal Protocol in 1987, an international treaty obligating countries to phase out the use of chemicals which harm the ozone layer.

 

Egypt was among the first signatories that year.

 

The use of ozone-depleting substances in Egypt's industrial and agricultural sectors has decreased since January 2013 and is decreasing gradually to reach 35 percent by January 2020 and then 100 percent by January 2030, according to the CAPMAS report.

 

In addition, the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that are ozone-depleting decreased by 70.9 percent in 2006 and continued to decrease until it reached 100 percent in 2012, due to the use of environmentally-friendly gases in the industrial and railway sectors.

 

The ozone layer is a shield of gas that protects the Earth from the sun's ultraviolet rays, which are harmful to our health and the environment.

 

The Egyptian cabinet is currently studying the use of a combination of energy sources – oil, natural gas, waste and solar and wind power – to be used in Egypt, according to Al-Ahram's Arabic news website.

 

As part of the initiative, the ministry of civil aviation said earlier this month that it's working on making Egypt's airports "green" by using solar and renewable energy.

 

First up is Borg Al-Arab airport in Alexandria, with work scheduled to be finished by 2016 at a cost of LE1.2 billion, according to Al-Ahram.

 

These plans contrast however with the government's announcement in April that it would import coal in order to fulfill its power needs, which stirred controversy and sparked concerns over the environmental drawbacks.

 

International action like the Montreal Protocol means the ozone layer is on track to recover in the next few decades, according to a report from the Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion in 2014.

 

China is the world leader in global carbon dioxide emissions (23 percent), followed by the US (19 percent) and the EU (13 percent), according to 2008 statistics.