A $420 million grant to China will help the nation protect the ozone layer. Some $200 million of the money, which comes from a multinational fund set up in 1987 as part of the Montreal Protocol, will be used to help 200 firms upgrade their equipment and clean up ozone-depleting industrial products. China reduced its annual consumption of such products from 105,000 tons in 1995 to 87,000 tons last year, but the nation says it needs $860 million to finish the job of phasing them out.
