Climate scientists suggest revisiting the 1987 Montreal Protocol (to add Greenhouse Gas controls)

Climate scientists suggest revisiting the 1987 Montreal Protocol

By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen | October 13, 2009

OTTAWA — International climate scientists have a new idea to shorten the agonizingly slow business of hammering out climate change laws: rewrite a hugely successful treaty written in Canada.

The Montreal Protocol, negotiated in 1987, has been extremely effective in reducing the world's output of gases that destroy the ozone layer. Now, the scientists write, countries should just add a few greenhouse gases — pollutants that cause global warming — to the existing Montreal Protocol.

The problem is that man-made gases that cause global warming continue to build up, and regulating them through the United Nations is a process that drags on and on. (For instance, countries generally haven't yet started to implement the Kyoto Protocol of 1997.)

Suddenly, tiny island nations such as Micronesia and the Maldives, which risk being flooded by rising sea levels, have suggested speeding things up by using a treaty we already have: the Montreal Protocol.

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Reducing abrupt climate change risk using the Montreal Protocol and other regulatory actions to complement cuts in CO₂ emissions

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Abstract

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Current emissions of anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHGs) have already committed the planet to an increase in average surface temperature by the end of the century that may be above the critical threshold for tipping elements of the climate system into abrupt change with potentially irreversible and unmanageable consequences. This would mean that the climate system is close to entering if not already within the zone of “dangerous anthropogenic interference” (DAI). Scientific and policy literature refers to the need for “early,” “urgent,” “rapid,” and “fast-action” mitigation to help avoid DAI and abrupt climate changes. We define “fast-action” to include regulatory measures that can begin within 2–3 years, be substantially implemented in 5–10 years, and produce a climate response within decades. We discuss strategies for short-lived non-CO2 GHGs and particles, where existing agreements can be used to accomplish mitigation objectives. Policy makers can amend the Montreal Protocol to phase down the production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) with high global warming potential. Other fast-action strategies can reduce emissions of black carbon particles and precursor gases that lead to ozone formation in the lower atmosphere, and increase biosequestration, including through biochar. These and other fast-action strategies may reduce the risk of abrupt climate change in the next few decades by complementing cuts in CO2 emissions.