That realization lit a fire under scientists and, importantly, government officials. (Margaret Thatcher, who trained as a chemist, was among those spooked by it.) In 1987, almost every country in the world signed the Montreal Protocol, agreeing on a plan to phase out damaging CFCs. Consumers bought in, too, voluntarily boycotting the spray cans. As a result of this global effort to get rid of CFCs, scientists now say the ozone layer is slowly healing. [...]
“The Montreal Protocol has done more for climate protection than any other agreement,” Zaelke, who is founder and president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, told me over the phone. Thanks to Montreal, “nearly 100 climate pollutants have been phased out, by nearly 100 percent,” he continued. [...]
Then there’s the fact that the Montreal Protocol deliberately takes developing countries’ needs into account, he said. With the new HFC ban, richer nations will phase the chemicals out first, followed by developing ones. Another element of it is that, while the pledges from Paris are voluntary, the Montreal Protocol actually includes trade sanctions—it can punish nations that don’t abide by its terms (although it's never been used to do so). These sanctions are only used as a last resort, but they still give the agreement some teeth.
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