The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer

The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer is a global agreement to protect the Earth’s ozone layer by phasing out the chemicals that deplete it. This phase-out plan includes both the production and consumption of ozone-depleting substances. The landmark agreement was signed in 1987 and entered into force in 1989.

The parties to the Protocol meet once a year to make decisions aimed at ensuring the successful implementation of the agreement. These include adjusting or amending the Protocol, which has been done six times since its creation. The most recent amendment, the Kigali Amendment, called for the phase-down of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in 2016. These HFCs were used as replacements for a batch of ozone-depleting substances eliminated by the original Montreal Protocol. Although they do not deplete the ozone layer, they are known to be powerful greenhouse gases and, thus, contributors to climate change.

The Montreal Protocol provided a set of practical, actionable tasks that were universally agreed on. The Protocol has successfully met its objectives thus far and continues to safeguard the ozone layer today. Thanks to the collaborative effort of nations around the world, the ozone layer is well on its way to recovery.

Decision XVII/10: Laboratory and analytical critical uses of methyl bromide

The Seventeenth Meeting of the Parties decided in Dec. XVII/10:

  1. To authorize, for Parties not operating under paragraph 1 of Article 5 of the Protocol, production and consumption of the controlled substance in Annex E of the Protocol, necessary to satisfy laboratory and analytical critical uses;
  2. To agree, subject to paragraph 3 of the present decision, that the relevant illustrative uses listed in annex IV to the report of the Seventh Meeting of the Parties are laboratory and analytical critical uses until 31 December 2006, subject to the conditions applied to exemption for laboratory and analytical uses contained in annex II to the report of the Sixth Meeting of the Parties;4
  3. That the uses listed in subparagraphs (a) and (c) of paragraph 6 of decision VII/11 and decision XI/15 are excluded from the uses agreed in paragraph 2 of the present decision;
  4. To request the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel to consider the uses and criteria referred to in paragraph 2 of the present decision in terms of the relevance of their application to laboratory and analytical critical uses of methyl bromide;
  5. To further request the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel to consider other possible laboratory and analytical uses for methyl bromide for which information is available;
  6. That the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel report to the Open-ended Working Group at its twenty-sixth meeting on the outcomes of paragraphs 4 and 5 of the present decision;
  7. To adopt an illustrative list of analytical and laboratory critical uses for methyl bromide at its Eighteenth Meeting of the Parties;
  8. To request the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel to report in 2007 and every other year thereafter on the development and availability of laboratory and analytical procedures that can be performed without using the controlled substance in Annex E of the Protocol;
  9. That the Meeting of the Parties shall, on the basis of information reported by the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel in accordance with paragraph 8 of the present decision, decide on any uses which should no longer be agreed as laboratory and analytical critical uses and the date from which any such restriction should apply;
  10. That the Secretariat should establish and maintain for the Parties a current and consolidated list of laboratory and analytical critical uses that the Parties have agreed are no longer laboratory and analytical critical uses;
  11. That any decision taken pursuant to paragraph 9 of the present decision should not prevent a Party from nominating a specific use under the critical use procedure set out in decision IX/6.

4 UNEP/OzL.Pro.6/7, annex II

Annex IV: Categories and examples of laboratory uses
Annex II: Conditions applied to exemption for laboratory and analytical uses