Ref:  Oz.Sec./2021: Season's Greetings                                                                                                   23 December 2021

Dear Stakeholders of the Montreal Protocol,

2021 has proven to be another challenging year, not only in terms of continued work online, but also dealing with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on our daily lives. 

Despite the persistent difficulties, I sincerely hope that you and your families are able to gather and enjoy the festive season; and you all remain healthy and well. 

Although online meetings remained the norm for 2021, much has been achieved this year as a result of your dedication and steadfastness to engage in the online work. All the meetings were once again successfully held online. We are particularly grateful to the stalwart attendance of those parties for whom the meeting times were less than ideal. Thank you!

As a result of your dedication and commitment throughout the year, in online forums, briefing and informal meetings, the 66^th and 67^th meetings of the Implementation Committee, the three technical online meetings of the 43^rd meeting of the Open-Ended Working Group, the 11^th meeting of the Ozone Research Managers, meetings of the Bureaux of the Vienna Convention and the Montreal Protocol, and the combined 12^th meeting (part II) of Convention of the Parties to the Vienna Convention and the 33^rd Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol, it was possible to reach consensus and agreement at the online COP12(II)/MOP33, resulting in 18 decisions.

To mark another tumultuous and unpredictable year dictated by COVID, the Secretariat has collated some of the key highlights of 2021, in recognition of your continued commitment and dedication to the vital work of the ozone treaties. We thank you for your unwavering support. To access the review please click here

While we continue to charter these unpredictable waters, I hope to be able to share with you the Secretariat’s plan for 2022 meetings around April, navigating the way forward.

In the meantime, and on behalf of the Secretariat, I would like to convey my season's greetings and wish you all a peaceful closure of 2021. I truly hope that 2022 will prove to be a turning point in this ongoing COVID crisis and that we can meet again in person.

Yours sincerely,

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Megumi Seki Nakamura
Executive Secretary
Ozone Secretariat

UN Environment Programme
P.O.Box 30552-00100
Nairobi, Kenya

Telephone: +254 20 762 3452
Email: meg.seki@un.org
Website:  http://ozone.unep.org 

The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (Montreal Protocol) can be further strengthened to control ozone-depleting substances and hydrofluorocarbons used as feedstocks to provide additional protection of the stratospheric ozone layer and the climate system while also mitigating plastics pollution. The feedstock exemptions were premised on the assumption that feedstocks presented an insignificant threat to the environment; experience has shown that this is incorrect. Through its adjustment procedures, the Montreal Protocol can narrow the scope of feedstock exemptions to reduce inadvertent and unauthorized emissions while continuing to exempt production of feedstocks for time-limited, essential uses. This upstream approach can be an effective and efficient complement to other efforts to reduce plastic pollution. Existing mechanisms in the Montreal Protocol such as the Assessment Panels and national implementation strategies can guide the choice of environmentally superior substitutes for feedstock-derived plastics. This paper provides a framework for policy makers, industries, and civil society to consider how stronger actions under the Montreal Protocol can complement other chemical and environmental treaties.

The control of the production of ozone-depleting substances through the Montreal Protocol means that the stratospheric ozone layer is recovering and that consequent increases in harmful surface ultraviolet radiation are being avoided. The Montreal Protocol has co-benefits for climate change mitigation, because ozone-depleting substances are potent greenhouse gases. The avoided ultraviolet radiation and climate change also have co-benefits for plants and their capacity to store carbon through photosynthesis, but this has not previously been investigated. Here, using a modelling framework that couples ozone depletion, climate change, damage to plants by ultraviolet radiation and the carbon cycle, we explore the benefits of avoided increases in ultraviolet radiation and changes in climate on the terrestrial biosphere and its capacity as a carbon sink.

Chemical loss of Arctic ozone due to anthropogenic halogens is driven by temperature, with more loss occurring during cold winters favourable for formation of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs). We show that a positive, statistically significant rise in the local maxima of PSC formation potential (PFPLM) for cold winters is apparent in meteorological data collected over the past half century. Output from numerous General Circulation Models (GCMs) also exhibits positive trends in PFPLM over 1950 to 2100, with highest values occurring at end of century, for simulations driven by a large rise in the radiative forcing of climate from greenhouse gases (GHGs).