The Montreal Protocol:  a model for addressing Climate Change? The discovery of the ozone hole over Antarctica in 1984 was spectacular confirmation that CFCs were destroying the ozone layer.  This lead to the Montreal Protocol, the only example of an international agreement to combat a global environmental problem. The Montreal Protocol was signed in 1987, soon after the discovery of the ozone hole. It was amended in 1990 and 1992. It will gradually phase out the production of ozone- destroying CFCs.  CFC production ended in the U.S. and Europe in 1996, and is slated to end in less developed countries in 2010. Countries that did not participate are subject to trade sanctions by the countries that did.