Emily's Global Climate Change Scrapbook

The Montreal Protocol

The Montreal Protocol, considered one of the most successful global agreements in history, was an international agreement originally written in 1987, but not put into action until 1989.

Its goal: reduce the production of CFCs by half in order to help restore the ozone layer.

The Montreal Protocol attempted to do so by slowly reducing the use of ozone depleting substances (ODS) a little each year, with differing rates for developed and developing nations.

CFCs were scheduled to be phased out by developed nations in 1995 and by developing nations in 2010.

Hydrochlorofluorocarbons are scheduled to be phased out by 2020 for developed nations and 2040 for developing nations, with period reductions leading up to these dates.

Canadian Signers of the original Montreal Protocol.

In order to ensure that the Protocol was a sucesses , businesses and industries were closely monitored by the government and aided by Clean-Tech development companies. This teamwork between industry and government has been attributed to the policy's success.

Originally only 24 countries signed the Protocol. Today 180 countries have signed the Montreal Protocol and emissions of ODS have fallen by 95%\\