26 October 2006
Acting Director of CSD A.R. Ravishankara, and scientist in CSD David W. Fahey, will give a presentation at the Meeting of the Parties to the United Nations Montreal Protocol, to be held in New Delhi, India, October 30 - November 3. Their talks will be part of a presentation describing the work of the Scientific Assessment Panel of the Montreal Protocol. Ravi will describe the major scientific highlights of the 2006 scientific assessment of the ozone layer, an international document that has been prepared over the course of the last 18 months. Ravi serves as a member of the Scientific Steering Committee for the Panel, and Dan Albritton (NOAA, retired) has served as a Cochair of the Panel since 1987. David Fahey will describe the update of the report's section on "Twenty Questions and Answers about the Ozone Layer," for which he is Lead Author.
Background: Over 190 nations are Parties to the United Nations 1987 agreement known as the Montreal Protocol, which is concerned with the protection of the stratospheric ozone layer. The Montreal Protocol established that a Scientific Assessment Panel will periodically produce a state-of-understanding report on the status of the ozone layer, to be used by the Parties in their deliberations of possible actions needed to protect the ozone layer from the harmful effects of human-produced chlorine and bromine compounds such as the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) used as refrigerants. The Parties meet every year to deliberate on adjusments and/or amendments to strengthen the original Montreal Protocol, and the meeting in New Delhi next week is the 15th such meeting since the Protocol's inception.
Significance: NOAA plays many roles in the work of the Montreal Protocol's Scientific Assessment Panel. In addition to the leadership roles mentioned above, many NOAA scientists from throughout OAR, NWS, and NESDIS have served as lead authors, coauthors, contributors, reviewers, and coordinating editor of the periodic reports (1989, 1991, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006). The ozone-layer assessments stand as an exemplar of the successful communication of scientific results to society. The work addresses NOAA's mission to provide decision-suppport information on topics related to climate.