Lessons From The Ozone Layer

Out of the many important aspects of the ozone history, I would like to highlight five factors that appear most relevant to the climate negotiations 1) the role of science and scientists (2) the necessity for strong and consistent leadership (3) the flexible design of the Montreal Protocol (4) the technological revolution that emerged from public-private sector partnerships and (5) the involvement of developing countries in the solution. 

An international scientific consensus was not by itself, however, a sufficient precondition for policy action. Scientists had to leave their laboratories and assume, alongside the diplomats, an unfamiliar share of responsibility for the policy implications of their findings. For their part, political and economic decision makers needed to fund relevant research and to work together with scientists on realistic assessments of the risks. 

For its part, the U.S. State Department designed a diplomatic campaign to counteract the influence over the European Union (EU) of such powerful companies as Imperial Chemical Industries and France s Atochem, while cultivating discreet support behind the EU communal curtain from Belgium, Denmark, and Germany. At the same time, we sent diplomatic and scientific teams to try to persuade the other two major producers—Japan and the Soviet Union—as well as developing nations to support strong controls. 

Scientific uncertainties decisively influenced the protocol s design. 

negotiators realized that a total ban on ozone-depleting substances was neither justified by existing scientific knowledge nor politically feasible. Therefore, in place of the immutable commitments of traditional treaties, we deliberately drafted the protocol to constitute a dynamic and flexible process. The spirit of Montreal, which became a hallmark of later negotiations to strengthen the protocol, was to proceed incrementally in small, cumulative steps, rather than to reach for overambitious targets that would only serve to harden opposition. 

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