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.