Questions and answers about the environmental effects of ozone depletion and its interactions with climate change: 2010 assessment

Abstract

In the mid-1970s it was discovered that some man-made products destroy ozone molecules in the stratosphere. This destruction leads to higher ultraviolet (UV) radiation levels at the surface of the Earth and can cause damage to ecosystems and to materials such as plastics. Itmay cause an increase in human diseases such as skin cancers and cataracts. The discovery of the role of the synthetic ozone-depleting chemicals, such as the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), stimulated increased research and monitoring in this field. Computer models predicted a disaster if nothing was done to protect the ozone layer. Based on this scientific information, the nations of the world took action in 1985 with the Vienna Convention for the Protection of theOzone Layer, followed by the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer in 1987. The Convention and Protocol have been amended and adjusted several times since 1987 as new knowledge has become available. The Meetings of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol appointed three Assessment Panels to regularly review research findings and progress. These panels are the Scientific Assessment Panel, the Technological and Economic Assessment Panel and the Environmental Effects Assessment Panel. Each panel covers a designated area with a natural degree of overlap. Themain reports of the Panels are published every four years, as required by the Meeting of the Parties. All three reports have an executive summary that is distributed more widely than the entire reports. It has become customary to add a set of questions and answers – mainly for non-expert readers – to these executive summaries. This document contains the questions and answers prepared by the experts of the Environmental Effects Assessment Panel. They refer mainly to the environmental effects of ozone depletion and its interactions with climate change, based on the 2010 report of this Panel, but also on information from previous assessments and from the report of the Scientific Assessment Panel. Readers who need further details on any question should consult the full reports for a more complete scientific discussion. All these reports can be found on the UNEP website: http://ozone.unep.org.