Diplomacy and the Ozone Crisis

This article, which appeared in the GAO Journal, No. 6, Summer 1989, discusses the new mode of international cooperation that reduces substances that damage the environment. In 1987, representatives from countries worldwide signed an agreement that established controls on certain chemicals that can destroy the ozone layer. Although the United States banned the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFC), the European community instituted only ineffectual regulations and continued to produce CFC. The United Nations worked to inform governments about the ozone depletion issue, provided a nonpoliticized international forum for negotiations, and was the driving force behind the final consensus. The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer may serve as a prototype for an evolving system of global diplomacy.