Banning CFCs Helped Us Avoid an Even Worse Climate Catastrophe

A 1987 worldwide ban on ozone-depleting chemicals known as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) averted a dangerous rise in the level of ultraviolet radiation (UV) reaching the Earth’s surface.

Without this multilateral environmental agreement, people worldwide would have faced a higher risk of skin and other cancers, eye damage, and possible immune system problems due to excess UV rays.

But a new modeling study from UK researchers suggests that the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer also prevented a 2.5°C increase in global warming by the end of the century.

“As well as protecting the ozone layer, the Montreal Protocol has itself been a phenomenally successful climate treaty,” study author Paul Young, PhD, of Lancaster University in the United Kingdom, wrote in a recent post about the research on The Conversation.

“It has controlled not only the emissions of highly potent greenhouse gases like CFCs but, as we have shown, it has avoided additional CO₂ levels through protecting the world’s plant life,” Young said in the article.