PROTECTING EARTH’S OZONE LAYER ALSO HELPED SLOW CLIMATE CHANGE

An international agreement to reduce ozone-depleting chemicals, based in part on science conducted in the 1980s by NOAA scientists and their colleagues, has also slowed global warming by years, according to a new study by scientists at NOAA’s Earth System Research Lab and their partners. The double effect occurred because compounds that destroy the atmosphere’s ozone layer also act as greenhouse gases. The findings will be available in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences online edition this week.

The ozone layer shields the Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation. To protect this layer, nations around the world signed the Montreal Protocol in 1987 to control the production and use of ozone-depleting substances.

“Science conducted by NOAA scientists and their colleagues provided the scientific basis for the framers of the Montreal Protocol,” said retired Navy Vice Admiral Conrad Lautenbacher, Ph.D., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “This is an example of how NOAA’s science informs those who make decisions that affect our daily lives. This new study also illustrates the multiplier effect of NOAA’s targeted research, and its benefits on multiple sectors of science.”

While protecting the ozone layer, the Montreal Protocol has also cut in half the amount of greenhouse warming caused by ozone-destroying chemicals that would have occurred by 2010 had these substances continued to build unabated in Earth’s atmosphere, according to the study. The amount of warming that was avoided is equivalent to 7-12 years of rise in carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere.

“The participants in the Montreal Protocol have done something very good for our climate,” says NOAA/ESRL scientist David Fahey, one of the authors. “While addressing ozone depletion, they also provided an early start on slowing climate change.”

The amount of greenhouse gases curbed by the Montreal Protocol is equivalent to five times the reduction target for the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol, a 2005 international agreement to address climate change, according to the authors. The Kyoto Protocol did not regulate ozone-depleting chemicals, because the prior agreements of the Montreal Protocol had already dealt with them.

Earlier studies showed that continued growth in ozone-depleting substances would lead to significant heating of Earth’s climate. The new analysis quantifies the near-term climate benefits of controlling these substances.

The paper also explores options for reducing future use of ozone-depleting substances, such as collecting and destroying chemical storage banks in old refrigerators and air conditioners, choosing substitutes with low climate-warming impact, and evaluating the feasibility of further reducing overall emissions of the substances.

The authors also consider the impact of voluntary chemical restrictions that began in 1975 in some countries. When these earlier reductions are taken into account, the amount of additional heating of Earth’s climate that would have occurred by 2010 is far greater than that avoided since 1987 when the Montreal Protocol went into effect, though the exact amount of the total benefit is uncertain.

Guus Velders of The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency and Stephen Andersen of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency led the study, which appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Besides Fahey, other authors are John Daniel, also of NOAA/ESRL, and Mack McFarland of DuPont Fluoroproducts, Wlimington, Del.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, is celebrating 200 years of science and service to the nation. From the establishment of the Survey of the Coast in 1807 by Thomas Jefferson to the formation of the Weather Bureau and the Commission of Fish and Fisheries in the 1870s, much of America's scientific heritage is rooted in NOAA.

NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 60 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.

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