According to the United Nations, efforts to protect the ozone layer have been successful and recovery may occur within a few decades.
The Earth’s ozone layer is on course to be fully healed within the next two decades, according to a new report from the United Nations.
The report states that if current policies are maintained, the hole in the ozone layer, which was once considered one of the biggest environmental threats facing humanity, will be completely recovered at different points in different places:
- 2066 over the Antarctic, where ozone depletion was the worst
- 2045 over the Arctic
- in about two decades’ time everywhere else
While the depletion of ozone is harmful due to solar radiation, it is not a major cause of climate change.
But saving the ozone layer has had a positive knock-on effect on global warming, the report suggests, because some of the harmful chemicals that were phased out are powerful greenhouse gases.
The improvement in the ozone layer is largely due to decisive action taken by governments to phase out ozone-depleting substances. These chemicals were banned under the Montreal Protocol, a landmark environmental agreement that went into effect in 1989, which has helped eliminate 99% of ozone-depleting chemicals, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which were commonly used as solvents and refrigerants.