Overall efforts to reduce the use of chemicals harming the ozone layer across the European Union continued in 2017 and the EU has already achieved its goals on the phase-out of ozone-depleting substances under the Montreal Protocol, according to the latest data released by the European Environment Agency (EEA). Ozone-depleting substances (ODS) are widely used in refrigerants, polymers, pharmaceuticals and agricultural chemicals. Updated aggregated data reported by companies across the 28 EU Member States showed that in 2017, more ODS controlled under the Montreal Protocol were destroyed or exported than produced or imported, a situation similar to that of 2016, according to the EEA report ‘Ozone-depleting substances 2018’. [2]