Bradford Seminar: “Science Too Important to Leave to Chance: How Activist Scientists and Policy Makers Guide the Montreal Protocol to Success”

Stratospheric ozone protects Earth against the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation from the sun including skin cancer, cataracts, suppression of the human immune system, damage to agricultural crops and ecosystems, diminishing of terrestrial and aquatic carbon sinks, and degradation of the built environment. The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (Montreal Protocol) is already a success in phasing out more than 99 percent of controlled ozone depleting substances (ODSs) with the ozone layer well on the way to recovery. Because most ODSs are powerful greenhouse gases (GHGs) the ODS phaseout has also protected climate more than all other efforts to date, avoiding a climate tipping point beyond which life on Earth might never recover Andersen, who is a key practitioner of the Montreal Protocol, explains how science was assisted by environmental activists in guiding policy makers and industry to make heroic decisions. In brainstorming with the audience, Dr. Andersen outlines pending actions by the Montreal Protocol to 1) replace dumping in developing countries of inefficient cooling equipment with obsolete refrigerants with affordable access to best available cooling solutions, 2) narrow the exemption for ODS and hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) used as feedstocks to manufacture plastics that pollute fresh water, oceans, land, and atmosphere, and 3) control nitrous oxide (N2O), which is a powerful ODS and GHG. Andersen is a PhD economist trained at the University of California Berkeley who served as expert witnesses and legal strategist for the Sierra Club and the Environmental Law Institute while a professor and then moved in 1986 to the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Stratospheric Protection Division to help develop the 1987 Montreal Protocol and subsequently strengthen its control measure to phase out ODSs. While at EPA, Stephen was Liaison to the US Department of Defense on ozone and climate protection, founding co-chair of the Montreal Protocol Technology and Economic Assessment Panel (TEAP), and architect of EPA’s first voluntary partnerships and international awards. He is co-author of the three volume United Nations History of Protecting the Ozone Layer (2002, 2007, and 2023).