Dear Readers

In the 1980s Greenpeace, the well-known evironmentalist organization, opened the eyes of the world to the potentially disastrous consequences of damage to the earth's ozone layer. In Germany, with its "Greenfreeze" campaign, Greenpeace has persuaded refrigerator manufacturers to adopt a technology which neither contributes to the greenhouse effect nor depletes the ozone layer (see gate 4/93).

In the Focus section of this issue, our authors describe the endeavours of German development aid organizations to make this technology available to the South. The writers come from a variety of back grounds - industry, scientific fields, vocational training, development cooperation and the consultancy business. Their articles deal, among other things, with questions of the economic viability of hydrocarbon technology as compared to other, ecologically questionable CFC substitutes. Other subjects covered include safety aspects, the promotion of craft businesses and training in the handling of CFC substitutes.

Our reporting on the development of the AT-Forum NGO-GTZ is a permanent focus in gate. In this issue we add a further perspective, with the first instalment in a series introducing the members of AT-Forum.

Bärbel Röben