Stephen O. Andersen protecting the stratospheric ozone layer. At EPA he rose to Deputy Director for Stratospheric Ozone Protection and then transferred to the Climate Protection Partnerships Division, where he was Director of Strategic Climate Projects until his retirement from government in 2009. The timing of Andersen’s arrival at EPA was fortuitous. 1987 proved to be a watershed moment in the effort to stop ozone depletion, which increased risks of skin cancer and threatened to wipe out crops and ecosystems, among many adverse impacts. The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was agreed on 16 September 1987 and created a
UNEP OzonAction Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol was set up. The Fund's "main objective is to assist developing country parties to the Montreal Protocol whose annual per capita consumption and production of ozone-depleting substances is less than 0.3 kg to comply with the control measures of the Protocol". UNEP’s OzonAction branch is one of the Fund’s implementing agencies, along with others, such as UNIDO, UNDP and the World Bank. Official website UNEP OzonAction OzonAction is a branch of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) which has its main office in Paris, and is part of UNEP's Division of