This week marks the 40th anniversary of the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, a landmark agreement for the protection of the ozone layer, an invisible shield that protects us from the UV radiation, known as UV-B. Long-term exposure to high levels of this radiation threatens human health and damages most animals, plants and microbes. The ozone layer protects all life on Earth.

The story of the Vienna Convention to rid the world of the chemicals that are destroying the earth’s protective ozone layer starts in 1974 when Mario Molina and F. Sherwood Rowland published their groundbreaking research warning that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) would destroy the ozone layer. Then in 1985, Joseph Farman, Brian Gardiner and Jonathan Shanklin published the evidence of a recurring springtime Antarctic ozone hole.

Convinced of the seriousness of the threat, the United Nations Environment Programme, then led by the Egyptian scientist Dr. Mustafa Tolba, contributed to a diplomatic effort to negotiate a treaty to protect the stratospheric ozone layer. The result was the adoption of the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer in 1985, and its Montreal Protocol two years later. The Montreal Protocol gave the signal to industry to invest in research and technology to pursue alternatives for chemicals that were thought to be indispensable.

Anniversaries apart from celebration provide an opportunity to reflect on what worked, what can change and what can be replicated to different settings. Forty years after the Vienna Convention was adopted, there are many achievements of which nations can be collectively proud. Its significance lies on united action and universal membership of 197 parties to the ozone treaties to achieve results; right science and an agreement on finance and technology through the Multilateral Fund to reconcile nations’ different needs and act as one on a global challenge; and results that keeps countries motivated to achieve more. 

(Image credit: Associated Press)