Infrastructure built to protect cities from flooding can increase economic damages elsewhere.
Image credit: Michelle A. Hummel.
-
Edited by William C. Clark, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and approved January 11, 2007 (received for review November 21, 2006)
Abstract
The 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer is a landmark agreement that has successfully reduced the global production, consumption, and emissions of ozone-depleting substances (ODSs). ODSs are also greenhouse gases that contribute to the radiative forcing of climate change. Using historical ODSs emissions and scenarios of potential emissions, we show that the ODS contribution to radiative forcing most likely would have been much larger if the ODS link to stratospheric ozone depletion had not been recognized in 1974 and followed by a series of regulations. The climate protection already achieved by the Montreal Protocol alone is far larger than the reduction target of the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. Additional climate benefits that are significant compared with the Kyoto Protocol reduction target could be achieved by actions under the Montreal Protocol, by managing the emissions of substitute fluorocarbon gases and/or implementing alternative gases with lower global warming potentials.
Footnotes
- †To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: guus.velders{at}mnp.nl
-
Author contributions: G.J.M.V., S.O.A., J.S.D., D.W.F., and M.M. designed research; G.J.M.V. performed research; G.J.M.V. analyzed data; and G.J.M.V., S.O.A., J.S.D., D.W.F., and M.M. wrote the paper.
-
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
-
This article is a PNAS direct submission.
-
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0610328104/DC1.
- Abbreviations:
- CFC,
- chlorofluorocarbons;
- GWP,
- global warming potential;
- HCFC,
- hydrochlorofluorocarbons;
- HFC,
- hydrofluorocarbons;
- IPCC,
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change;
- MR74,
- Molina and Rowland;
- NMP87,
- no Montreal Protocol;
- ODS,
- ozone-depleting substance;
- RF,
- radiative forcing.
-
Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.
- © 2007 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA
The importance of the Montreal Protocol in protecting climate
Article Classifications
- Physical Sciences
- Environmental Sciences
Sign up for Article Alerts
Jump to section
You May Also be Interested in
Phosphine in the Venusian atmosphere can be explained without biogenic sources and is consistent with ongoing volcanism on Venus.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons/NASA.
A study finds underreporting of COVID-19 cases in the United States and that the United States is likely far from achieving herd immunity through infection alone.
Image credit: Pixabay/geralt.
Researchers hope vaccines can serve as a key tool for addressing the opioid epidemic. The first clinical trials are underway, though big challenges remain.
Image credit: United States Drug Enforcement Administration.
Eyeing the effects of the Anthropocene, researchers offer a novel framework to identify and combine models from across the physical and social sciences.
Image credit: Shutterstock/Victor Lauer.