The Multilateral Ozone Fund of the Montreal Protocol: Institutions for global environmental change

Abstract

The forthcoming Kyoto Protocol will make an interesting comparison with the Montreal Protocol in some ten years time. Doubtless many Ph.D. theses will be produced on the basis of that tantalizing prospect. The Montreal Protocol was always designed to be self-implementing and it is probably unwise to draw too many lessons for the future of global environmental diplomacy. The stock of ozone-depleting chemicals was technically discoverable and calculable, and substitutes were for the most part already present or on offer. Global corporations could see a lucrative future in creating less depleting agents, and in designing the technology to guarantee their consumption. At least the Protocol has created a modest success in international regime design as Robert Falkner shows in the article that follows. By making side-payments through an international ozone fund to encourage reluctant parties to participate, the industrialized country Parties have successfully expanded the membership of the regime and addressed the thorny questions of justice and historical responsibility. But continued ozone depletion will overreach the coming century, black markets will continue to flourish and the Northern economies will generate additional profits from less than perfect solution. Is this what sustainable developmentis supposed to be about? Andrew Jordan and Tim O’Riordan.