A central question remains unresolved in the draft treaty: Is plastic pollution basically a waste management problem, or can it be solved only with a cap on production?
Concentration of ozone (in Dobson units) as of mid-September 2022, based on measurements by the IASI infrared sounder over 15 years above Antarctica. The extent of damage and geographical distribution of the hole (in blue) varies according to weather conditions.
Anne Boynard/LATMOS
In 1987, the Montreal Protocol established a ban on substances responsible for destroying the ozone layer, which is essential for protection against the sun’s rays.
United Nations efforts to advance a global treaty on plastic pollution echo past multilateral agreements that tackled ozone layer depletion and acid rain.
Egyptian workers push Coca-Cola branded refrigerators, provided free to grocers, through a Cairo street.
Mohammed Al-Sehiti/AFP via Getty Images
Rocket emissions in the upper atmosphere can damage the ozone layer but are neither measured nor regulated. It’s a policy gap we have to close if the space industry is to grow sustainably.
People buy produce at a wholesale market in Nakuru, Kenya, on Dec. 24, 2022.
James Wakibia/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Many developing nations have little cold storage and lose much of their perishable food before it gets to markets. Climate-friendly refrigeration can provide huge environmental and social benefits.
Molina, who died on Oct. 8, ‘thought climate change was the biggest problem in the world long before most people did.’ His research on man-made depletion of the ozone layer won the 1995 Nobel Prize.
A crowd observes the world’s first Earth Day on April 23, 1970, in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia.
(AP Photo)
When the current crisis passes, we must seize the opportunity to re-imagine, and to create, a different kind of future.
Temperatures are warming faster in the Arctic than anywhere else in the world. Water and sewer pipes in Iqaluit, Nunavut, are cracking during the winter as the ground shifts.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
For several years, emissions of CFCs have been rising, in apparent defiance of a global ban in place since 2010. A new global detective effort has traced the source to two eastern Chinese provinces.
Pollution in Shandong province, source of much of the ozone-depleting gas.
Wu Hong / EPA
Dozens of cities, states and nations are enacting bans and restrictions on single-use plastic bags and other items. A legal expert explains how a global treaty could build on these efforts.
Applying nitrogen fertilizer to corn at the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station, a research site in Michigan.
NSF
Fertilizer is a key source of nitrogen pollution which fouls air and water worldwide. Current regulations target farmers, but focusing on producers could spur them to develop greener products.
Researchers release a balloon carrying instruments to measure ozone levels above Antarctica.
Kelli-Ann Bliss/NOAA
Almost 30 years ago the world responded to the realisation that our ozone layer was in trouble. The resulting Montreal Protocol was a rare example of global cooperation, but there’s no room for complacency.
Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica's Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong