Held up as a beacon of hope by environmentalists and governments the world over, the Montreal Protocol has resulted in a 98 percent drop in the production and consumption of ozone depleting substancessuch as CFCs since 1987, corresponding to a reduction of over 10 billion tonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions per year.
This immense achievement, which has set the ozone layer on track for recovery by 2050, is now overshadowed by the looming climate threat of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), super greenhouse gases hundreds to thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide. Rapid growth in the use of these chemicals, which are direct substitutes for ODS in refrigeration, air conditioning and other applications, is pushing the global climate system to the brink.