For other similarly-named agreements, see Montreal Convention (disambiguation).

The Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer is an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of a number of substances believed to be responsible for ozone depletion. A Treaty is an agreement under International law entered into by actors in international law namely States and International organizations. The photochemical mechanisms that give rise to the ozone layer were worked out by the British physicist Sidney Chapman in 1930 Ozone depletion describes two distinct but related observations a slow steady decline of about 4 percent per decade in the total amount of Ozone in Earth's The treaty was opened for signature on September 16, 1987 and entered into force on January 1, 1989 followed by a first meeting in Helsinki, May 1989. Events 1400 - Owain Glyndŵr is declared Prince of Wales by his followers Year 1987 ( MCMLXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar) New Year See also New Year The Ancient Romans began their consular year on January 1st since 153 BC Year 1989 ( MCMLXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar) Since then, it has undergone seven revisions, in 1990 (London), 1991 (Nairobi), 1992 (Copenhagen), 1993 (Bangkok), 1995 (Vienna), 1997 (Montreal), and 1999 (Beijing). London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Nairobi (naɪˈroʊbɪ is the capital and largest city of Kenya. Copenhagen (ˌkəʊpənˈheɪgən ˌkəʊpənˈhɑːgən ˈkəʊpənˌheɪgən ˈkəʊpənˌhɑːgən kʰøb̥ənˈhɑʊ̯ˀn kʰøb̥m̩ˈhɑʊ̯ˀn is the capital and largest city Bangkok, known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon (krūŋtʰêːp máhǎːnákʰɔn) or Krung Thep ( for short is the Capital, largest Vienna ( in Wien; see also other names) is the Capital of Austria, and is also one of the nine States of Austria. Montreal, or Montréal in French ( pronounced in French, in English) is the largest city in the Canadian province of Quebec Due to its widespread adoption and implementation it has been hailed as an example of exceptional international co-operation with Kofi Annan quoted as saying it is "Perhaps the single most successful international agreement to date. Kofi Atta Annan, GCMG (born 8 April 1938 is a Ghanaian Diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations . . ". ^[1]

Contents 1 Terms and purpose 2 History 3 Multilateral Fund 4 Parties 5 Impact 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

Terms and purpose

The treaty^[2] is structured around several groups of halogenated hydrocarbons that have been shown to play a role in ozone depletion. Abundance Owing to their high Reactivity, the halogens are found in the environment only in compounds or as Ions Halide ions and oxoanions In Organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an Organic compound consisting entirely of Hydrogen and Carbon. All of these ozone depleting substances contain either chlorine or bromine (substances containing fluorine-only do not harm the ozone layer). For a table of ozone-depleting substances see: [1]

For each group, the treaty provides a timetable on which the production of those substances must be phased out and eventually eliminated.

The stated purpose of the treaty is that the signatory states:

: . . . Recognizing that world-wide emissions of certain substances can significantly deplete and otherwise modify the ozone layer in a manner that is likely to result in adverse effects on human health and the environment, . . . Determined to protect the ozone layer by taking precautionary measures to control equitably total global emissions of substances that deplete it, with the ultimate objective of their elimination on the basis of developments in scientific knowledge . . . Acknowledging that special provision is required to meet the needs of developing countries. . .

shall accept a series of stepped limits on CFC use and production, including:

from 1991 to 1992 its levels of consumption and production of the controlled substances in Group I of Annex A do not exceed 150 percent of its calculated levels of production and consumption of those substances in 1986;

from 1994 its calculated level of consumption and production of the controlled substances in Group I of Annex A does not exceed, annually, twenty-five percent of its calculated level of consumption and production in 1986. The haloalkanes (also known as halogenoalkanes or alkyl halides) are a group of Chemical compounds consisting of Alkanes such as Methane

from 1996 its calculated level of consumption and production of the controlled substances in Group I of Annex A does not exceed zero.

There is a slower phase-out (to zero by 2010) of other substances (halon 1211, 1301, 2402; CFCs 13, 111, 112, etc) and some chemicals get individual attention (Carbon tetrachloride; 1,1,1-trichloroethane). Carbon tetrachloride, also known by many other names (see Table is the Organic compound with the formula CCl4 The phasing-out of the less active HCFCs started only in 1996 and will go on until a complete phasing-out is achieved in 2030. The haloalkanes (also known as halogenoalkanes or alkyl halides) are a group of Chemical compounds consisting of Alkanes such as Methane

There are a few exceptions for "essential uses", where no acceptable substitutes have been found (for example, in the metered dose inhalers commonly used to treat asthma and other respiratory problems^[3]) or Halon fire suppression systems used in submarines and aircraft (but not in general industry).

The substances in Group I of Annex A are:

• CFCl₃ (CFC-11)
• CF₂Cl₂ (CFC-12)
• C₂F₃Cl₃ (CFC-113)
• C₂F₄Cl₂(CFC-114)
• C₂F₅Cl (CFC-115)

The provisions of the Protocol include the requirement that the Parties to the Protocol base their future decisions on the current scientific, environmental, technical, and economic information that is assessed through panels drawn from the worldwide expert communities. Trichlorofluoromethane also called freon-11, CFC-11, or R-11, is a Chlorofluorocarbon. Dichlorodifluoromethane ( R-12) usually sold under the Brand name Freon-12, is a Chlorofluorocarbon Halomethane, commonly known To provide that input to the decision-making process, advances in understanding on these topics were assessed in 1989, 1991, 1994, 1998 and 2002 in a series of reports entitled Scientific assessment of ozone depletion. The Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion is a sequence of reports sponsored by WMO / UNEP.

Several reports have been published by various governmental and non-governmental organizations to present alternatives to the ozone depleting substances, since the substances have been used in various technical sectors, like in refrigerating, agriculture, energy production, and laboratory measurements^[4][5][6].

History

In 1973 Chemists Frank Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina, then at the University of California, Irvine, began studying the impacts of CFCs in the earth's atmosphere. Frank Sherwood Rowland (born June 28, 1927) is an American Nobel laureate and a professor of Chemistry at the University of California José Mario Molina-Pasquel Henríquez (born March 19, 1943 in Mexico City) is a Mexican -born U The University of California Irvine is a public Coeducational Research university situated in Irvine, California. They discovered that CFC molecules were stable enough to remain in the atmosphere until they got up into the middle of the stratosphere where they would finally (after an average of 50–100 years for two common CFCs) be broken down by ultraviolet radiation releasing a chlorine atom. The stratosphere is the second major layer of Earth's atmosphere, just above the Troposphere, and below the Mesosphere. Ultraviolet ( UV) light is Electromagnetic radiation with a Wavelength shorter than that of Visible light, but longer than X-rays Chlorine (ˈklɔriːn from the Greek word 'χλωρóς' ( khlôros, meaning 'pale green' is the Chemical element with Atomic number 17 and Rowland and Molina then proposed that these chlorine atoms might be expected to cause the breakdown of large amounts of ozone (O₃) in the stratosphere. Their argument was based upon an analogy to contemporary work by Paul J. Crutzen and Harold Johnston, which had shown that nitric oxide (NO) could catalyze the destruction of ozone. Paul Jozef Crutzen (born December 3, 1933, Amsterdam) is a Dutch Nobel prize winning atmospheric chemist. (Several other scientists, including Ralph Cicerone, Richard Stolarski, Michael McElroy, and Steven Wofsy had independently proposed that chlorine could catalyze ozone loss, but none had realized that CFCs were a potentially large source of chlorine. Ralph J Cicerone is an American Atmospheric scientist, a former chancellor of UC Irvine, and currently president of the National Academy of Sciences ) Crutzen, Molina and Rowland were awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their work on this problem. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry (Nobelpriset i kemi is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of Chemistry.

The environmental consequence of this discovery was that, since stratospheric ozone absorbs most of the ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation reaching the surface of the planet, depletion of the ozone layer by CFCs would lead to an in increase in UV-B radiation at the surface, resulting in an increase in skin cancer and other impacts such as damage to crops and to marine phytoplankton.

But the Rowland-Molina hypothesis was strongly disputed by representatives of the aerosol and halocarbon industries. The chair of the board of DuPont was quoted as saying that ozone depletion theory is "a science fiction tale. E I du Pont de Nemours and Company (,) is an American chemical company that was founded in July 1802 as a Gunpowder mill by Eleuthère Irénée . . a load of rubbish. . . utter nonsense". Robert Abplanalp, the president of Precision Valve Corporation (and inventor of the first practical aerosol spray can valve), wrote to the Chancellor of UC Irvine to complain about Rowland's public statements (Roan, p. Robert Henry (Bob Abplanalp ( April 4, 1922, New York City - August 30, 2003, Bronxville New York) was a Swiss-American 56. )

After publishing their pivotal paper in June 1974, Rowland and Molina testified at a hearing before the U. S. House of Representatives in December, 1974. As a result significant funding was made available to study various aspects of the problem and to confirm the initial findings. In 1976 the U. S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) released a report that confirmed the scientific credibility of the ozone depletion hypothesis. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS is a corporation in the United States whose members serve Pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science NAS continued to publish assessments of related science for the next decade.

Then, in 1985, British Antarctic Survey scientists Farman, Gardiner and Shanklin shocked the scientific community when they published results of a study showing an ozone "hole" in the journal Nature — showing a decline in polar ozone far larger than anyone had anticipated. The British Antarctic Survey (BAS is the United Kingdom 's national Antarctic operator and has an active role in Antarctic affairs

That same year, 20 nations, including most of the major CFC producers, signed the Vienna Convention, which established a framework for negotiating international regulations on ozone-depleting substances. The Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer is a multilateral Environmental agreement.

But the CFC industry did not give up that easily. As late as 1986, the Alliance for Responsible CFC Policy (an association representing the CFC industry founded by DuPont) was still arguing that the science was too uncertain to justify any action. In 1987, DuPont testified before the US Congress that "we believe that there is no immediate crisis that demands unilateral regulation. "

Multilateral Fund

The Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol provides funds to help developing countries to phase out the use of ozone-depleting substances.

The Multilateral Fund was the first financial mechanism to be created under an international treaty. It embodies the principle agreed at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 that countries have a common but differentiated responsibility to protect and manage the global commons. The United Nations ( UN) is an International organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in International law, International security

The Fund is managed by an executive committee with an equal representation of seven industrialized and seven Article 5 countries, which are elected annually by a Meeting of the Parties. The Committee reports annually to the Meeting of the Parties on its operations.

Up to 20 percent of the contributions of contributing parties can also be delivered through their bilateral agencies in the form of eligible projects and activities.

The fund is replenished on a three-year basis by the donors. Pledges amount to US$ 2. 1 billion over the period 1991 to 2005. Funds are used, for example, to finance the conversion of existing manufacturing processes, train personnel, pay royalties and patent rights on new technologies, and establish national ozone offices.

Parties

At present, 191 nations have become party to the Montreal Protocol (see external link below). Montreal, or Montréal in French ( pronounced in French, in English) is the largest city in the Canadian province of Quebec Those 5 that are not as of September 2007 are Andorra, Iraq, San Marino, Timor-Leste and Vatican City. September 2007 is the ninth month of that year It began on a Saturday Andorra, officially the Principality of Andorra ( Catalan: Principat d'Andorra) is a small Landlocked country in western For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iraq topics. The Most Serene Republic of San Marino (Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino is a country in the Apennine Mountains. East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste (officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste) is a country in Southeast Asia. Vatican City, officially the State of the Vatican City (Stato della Città del Vaticano is a Landlocked sovereign City-state whose territory

Impact

Since the Montreal Protocol came into effect, the atmospheric concentrations of the most important chlorofluorocarbons and related chlorinated hydrocarbons have either leveled off or decreased [2]. Halon concentrations have continued to increase, as the halons presently stored in fire extinguishers are released, but their rate of increase has slowed and their abundances are expected to begin to decline by about 2020. Also, the concentration of the HCFCs increased drastically at least partly because for many uses CFCs (e. g. used as solvents or refrigerating agents) were substituted with HCFCs. While there have been reports of attempts by individuals to circumvent the ban, e. g. by smuggling CFCs from undeveloped to developed nations, the overall level of compliance has been high. In consequence, the Montreal Protocol has often been called the most successful international environmental agreement to date. In a 2001 report, NASA found the ozone hole over Antarctica had remained the same size for the previous three years. [3], however in 2003 the ozone hole grew to its second largest size. [4]

Unfortunately, the hydrochlorofluorocarbons, or HCFCs, and hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, are now thought to contribute to anthropogenic global warming. Global warming is the increase in the average measured temperature of the On a molecule-for-molecule basis, these compounds are up to 10,000 times more potent greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide. The Montreal Protocol currently calls for a complete phase-out of HCFCs by 2030, but does not place any restriction on HFCs. Since the CFCs themselves are equally powerful as greenhouse gases, the mere substitution of HFCs for CFCs does not significantly increase the rate of anthropogenic global warming, but over time a steady increase in their use could increase the danger that human activity will change the climate [5].

See also

• Ozone depletion
• Kyoto Protocol
• Refrigerant
• R-134a
• Greenhouse Gases
• Vienna Conference on Ozone Depletion

References

This article contains material from the CIA World Factbook (2003 edition) which, as a US government publication, is in the public domain. The World Factbook ( ISSN; also known as the CIA World Factbook) is an annual publication of the Central Intelligence Agency of the The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone

(referred to as Ozone Layer Protection)

• Benedick, Richard E. (1991). Ozone Diplomacy. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-65001-8 (Ambassador Benedick was the Chief U. S. Negotiator at the meetings that resulted in the Protocol. )

• Litfin, Karen T. (1994). Ozone Discourses. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-08137-5

External links

• The Parties involved
• The Montreal Protocol
• THE CFC-OZONE PUZZLE:Environmental Science in the Global Arena by F. Sherwood Rowland and Mario J. Molina
• The Indispensable Element in the MONTREAL OZONE PROTOCOL by Richard Benedick
• The evolution of policy responses to stratospheric ozone depletion by P. M. Morrisette, Natural Resources Journal 29: 793–820 (1989).
• Has the Montreal Protocol been successful in reducing ozone-depleting gases in the atmosphere? (NOAA Aeronomy Lab)
• Doomsday Déjà vu: Ozone Depletion's Lessons for Global Warming by Ben Lieberman
• Halon and the Ozone Layer

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