NOAA Observes 20th Anniversay of the Montreal Protocol

Monday, September 17th 2007, 5:26 am

By: News On 6

More than two decades ago, NOAA scientist Susan Solomon and her colleagues discovered the chemistry behind the cause of the Antarctic ozone hole. Today, NOAA continues to lead scientific efforts in this area.

The signing of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, marks a landmark international agreement to phase out the production and consumption of ozone-depleting chemicals. The signing of this agreement 20 years ago was and still is critically important, since without the stratospheric ozone layer the Earth would not be shielded from the sunâ€™s damaging UV-B radiation, which can adversely affect human health and ecosystems. Since the inception of the Montreal Protocol, NOAA has played a leading role in providing policy makers with the scientific information needed to track and assess the effectiveness of the Protocol and make appropriate adjustments to it.

The Most Successful Multilateral Environmental Agreements to Date

The Montreal Protocol, along with its subsequent amendments, is considered by many to be the most successful multilateral environmental agreement to date. Since being enacted in 1987, it has resulted in a significant reduction in global emissions of ozone depleting substances and there are signs that ozone depletion is slowly recovering.

â€œBoth CFC and ozone levels are showing signs of leveling off and some CFCs have even started to decrease,â€ said David Hofmann, director of NOAAâ€™s Earth System Research Laboratory, Global Monitoring Division in Boulder, Colo. â€œAs a result, the world's fragile ozone layer is predicted to gradually return to its original state by the second half of this century.â€