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EPA Honors Climate and Ozone Protection Award Winners


WEBWIRE

World customs inspectors, skin cancer prevention experts, an international bank, and a reverend are among the 31 individuals, organizations and companies from around the world that EPA will recognize today for outstanding efforts to protect the Earth’s climate and stratospheric ozone layer. The award recipients have demonstrated ingenuity, leadership and public purpose by improving their environmental performance and encouraging others to do the same.

“As part of the Bush Administration’s aggressive yet practical strategy, EPA is pleased to work with partners like these award winners to protect the Earth’s atmosphere in cost-effective ways,” said EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. “Environmental protection is everyone’s responsibility, and these leaders are making smart choices to hand down a cleaner, healthier future.”

The Climate Protection Award winners collectively purchased over 250 million kilowatt hours of green power. They also generated wind and solar power on-site, increased energy efficiency, introduced new technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, and slashed the use of potent non-CO2 greenhouse gases.

The Stratospheric Ozone Protection Award winners have helped to eliminate the use of ozone depleting substances in the agriculture and aviation sectors, and in medical inhalers. The winners have also helped to lead the phase-out of ozone depleting substances in developing countries, raise awareness about skin cancer prevention, and monitor the status of ozone layer recovery.

The awards will be presented at a ceremony this afternoon at the International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. Since the annual Stratospheric Ozone Protection Awards began in 1990, EPA has honored 510 individuals and organizations from 42 different countries. EPA began the Climate Protection Awards in 1998 and has so far recognized 139 individuals and organizations from 16 countries for outstanding efforts to curb climate change.

The year 2007 is notable because it marks the 20th Anniversary of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. Stratospheric Ozone Protection Award winners have been instrumental in developing technology that protects the ozone layer while saving energy and preventing greenhouse gas emissions, and have helped to make that treaty the success that it is today.

In honor of the 20th Anniversary, EPA will present the “Best of the Best” Stratospheric Ozone Protection Awards in Montreal, Canada in September 2007.

More information about the Best of the Best: epa.gov/ozone/awards/bestofthebest/index.html



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