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Environment Canada

The signing of the original Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer on September 16, 1987 marked a historic milestone in global environmental policy. This agreement, subsequently signed by more than 150 countries, and amended through a series of meetings of the Parties at London in 1990, at Copenhagen in 1992 and at Vienna in 1995, put in place measures to protect the ozone layer. Use of ozone depleting substances was controlled and reduced by agreement. Scientific evidence suggests that, as a result, the ozone layer is beginning to be restored-a process that will take approximately fifty years to complete.

Our study estimated the cost of compliance to the controls on substance use. These costs reflect the extra value of resources that have and will be used to replace ozone depleting substances. On the benefit side, we estimate fewer human health and non-health impacts as a result of the Montreal Protocol. Existing models were adjusted to fit with world parameters. Our study nets these cost and benefit impacts and provides sensitivity analyses for a broad range of alternatives.

This study was commissioned by Environment Canada as one contribution to the events of the tenth anniversary meeting of the Parties in Montreal. It met our client’s needs to produce the best estimate that can be developed of the global benefits and costs of the Montreal Protocol subject to the limitations of data and analytical models in this area.