Still no time for complacency: evaluating the ongoing success and continued challenge of global ozone policy

David Downie ()

Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 2015, vol. 5, issue 2, 187-194

Abstract: This article concludes the special issue by outlining the most important indicators of the ozone regime’s success as well as issues that could slow or even prevent the complete restoration of the Earth’s protective “ozone layer” or lead to new causes of depletion in the future. Evidence for the ozone regime’s success includes the following: the declining production and consumption of ozone-depleting substance (ODS) chemicals; declining levels of ODS in the atmosphere; reduced depletion of stratospheric ozone; the projected recovery of the ozone layer during this century; reduced UV radiation and the associated environmental, human health, and economic benefits; universal participation in the regime’s treaties; the operation of regime institutions; and the regime’s ancillary success in reducing certain greenhouse gas emissions. Despite these historic successes, global ozone policy faces important challenges. These include the following: the millions of tons of ODS that remain in existing and discarded equipment and materials; the potential difficulty of completing the hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) phaseout; the broad exemptions that allow for the continued use of methyl bromide; the potential for illegal production and trade; the possibility that new ODS not covered by the regime have or will emerge; and the impacts of climate change. Copyright AESS 2015

Keywords: Montreal Protocol; Ozone; International environmental policy; Environmental regime; CFC; HCFC; HFC; Methyl bromide (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s13412-014-0199-3 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:jenvss:v:5:y:2015:i:2:p:187-194

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/13412

DOI: 10.1007/s13412-014-0199-3

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences is currently edited by Walter A. Rosenbaum

More articles in Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences from Springer, Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().