Negotiations Leading up to the Montreal Protocol Sample Clauses

Negotiations Leading up to the Montreal Protocol. In 1974, Xxxxxx Xxxxxx and Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxxx published a scientific paper suggesting that the stratospheric ozone layer was being destroyed by chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), a man-made chemical substance.41 Although the causal link between the release of CFCs and the depletion of the ozone was largely unproved in the late 1970s, many countries began to unilaterally reduce and restrict CFC production and consumption.42 However, despite significant unilateral action on the part of major contributors, such as the United States, CFC production and consumption began to rise in the 1980s, necessitating the need for international cooperation in protecting the ozone layer by phasing out the use of harmful ozone depleting substances.43 In 1981, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) established a Working Group of legal and technical experts to agree on and draft a global framework convention.44 The resulting Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer (Vienna Convention) was adopted and signed by twenty countries plus the European Union, and entered into force on September 22, 1988.45 Although the convention included no binding controls on the production and emission of ozone depleting substances, the Vienna Convention played a pivotal role in creating a foundation on which significant progress has been made. Indeed, at the Convention the parties agreed to: (1) conduct further scientific research and assessments to overcome uncertainty, (2) to exchange information for the benefit of all participants, and (3) to adopt “appropriate measures” to deal with the problem.46