Ozone International Agreements

The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, first signed in 1987, is a landmark in environmental policy-making because it was designed on the basis of scientific evidence, to prevent rather than cure a global problem. The Protocol controls both the production and consumption of the various ozone depleting substances. In 1990 at the second meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol in London, the 80 countries present agreed that the production and consumption of CFCs and halons should be phased out by the year 2000 in developed countries. The London meeting established a Multilateral Fund to provide financial assistance to developing countries to meet the cost of phase out. The United Kingdom, along with the other members of the European Union, has implemented the Montreal Protocol through an EC Regulation, which is directly applicable in UK law.

Ozone measurements from Reading and Lerwick are transmitted daily to the The World Ozone and Ultraviolet Radiation Data Centre (WOUDC). WOUDC is one of six World Data Centres which are part of the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) programme of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The WMO GAW network of stations must continue to monitor the critical atmospheric parameters and provide scientific data needed to understand and ultimately predict environmental changes on both regional and global scales.