Starting the year on a good note, a UN-backed panel of experts has found that the Earth’s ozone layer is on track to recover within four decades.
On Monday, the Scientific Assessment Panel to the Montreal Protocol on Ozone Depleting Substances report, published every four years, confirmed the phase-out of nearly 99% of banned ozone-depleting substances.
The progress is thanks to the 1989 global agreement to the phaseout of ozone-depleting chemicals.
The report highlights the success of the Montreal Protocol in safeguarding the ozone layer, leading to notable recovery of the ozone layer in the upper stratosphere and decreased human exposure to harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun.
‘The impact the Montreal Protocol has had on climate change mitigation cannot be overstressed. Over the last 35 years, the Protocol has become a true champion for the environment,’ said Meg Seki, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Ozone Secretariat.
‘The assessments and reviews undertaken by the Scientific Assessment Panel remain a vital component of the work of the Protocol that helps inform policy and decision makers,’
The 10th edition of the Scientific Assessment Panel reaffirms the positive impact that the treaty has already had on the climate.
An additional 2016 agreement, known as the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, requires a phase-down of the production and consumption of many hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).
HFCs do not directly deplete ozone but are powerful climate change gases. The Scientific Assessment Panel said this amendment is estimated to avoid 0.3–0.5°C of warming by 2100.
‘Our success in phasing out ozone-eating chemicals shows us what can and must be done – as a matter of urgency – to transition away from fossil fuels, reduce greenhouse gases and so limit temperature increase,’ said WMO Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas.
What is the Montreal Protocol?
The Montreal Protocol is a global agreement to protect the Earth’s ozone layer by phasing out the chemicals that deplete it.
The landmark agreement entered into force in 1989 and it is one of the most successful global environmental agreements.
The discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole was first announced in 1985.
If current policies remain in place, the ozone layer is expected to recover to 1980 values by around 2066 over the Antarctic, by 2045 over the Arctic and by 2040 for the rest of the world.
The Antarctic ozone hole has been slowly improving in area and depth since the year 2000.
Even last year, Nasa said that the Earth’s ozone layer continued to heal in 2022 with the annual Antarctic ozone hole shrinking to an average area of 23.2 million square kilometres between 7 September and 13 October.
