Leading international scientists, including the three who won the Nobel Prize in 1995 for discovering the hole in the ozone layer, yesterday told a conference in Athens that much had been done to mend the ozone layer but that climate change remained a huge problem.

“The international community took action and as a result the ozone layer is today in a satisfactory state,” the Mexican-born US chemist, and one of the three Nobelists, Mario Molina told Kathimerini. Molina called for similar action to be taken to tackle climate change. “Climate change has a negative impact on the state of the ozone layer, but the reverse also applies,” Molina said. He called for “more aggressive policies” to protect the ozone layer and curb climate change.

The president of the International Ozone Commission, Ivar Isaksen, also stressed that the two problems are “inextricably linked.” “The truth is that it is 10 times more difficult to fight climate change,” Isaksen said. “But if bold steps are not taken, the restoration of the ozone layer will be seriously delayed,” he added.

The president of Athens’s National Observatory, Christos Zerefos, called on scientists and citizens alike “to exert pressure on governments and industries to sign more binding agreements.” Zerefos complained about the absence of scientists and politicians at yesterday’s conference. “These people believe that the environment is an ideology but actually it is neither left-leaning or right-leaning – it is based on science,” he said.

In a related development yesterday, doctors attending a cardiological seminar warned that atmospheric pollution in urban areas can deprive residents of between two and three years of life. According to recent studies, invoked during the seminar, an increase of pollution particles in the atmosphere, at a rate of 10 milligrams per cubic meter, can increase lung cancer deaths by 8 percent.