30 May 2007
Director of CSD, Dr. A.R. Ravishankara will attend the June 4-7 meeting of the Open-Ended Working Group of the U.N. Montreal Protocol, representing the Cochairs and Steering Committee of the Montreal Protocol's Scientific Assessment Panel (SAP). At that meeting, which is being held in Nairobi, Ravi will present the scientific findings from the Synthesis Report of the recently completed 2006 scientific assessment on the stratospheric ozone layer.
Background: Delegates at the Open-Ended Working Group meeting represent the over 190 nations that are Parties to the Montreal Protocol, an international United Nations agreement forged in 1987 that protects the ozone layer. The Open-Ended Working Group meeting sets the stage for the full Meeting of the Parties later this year, when further measures to protect the ozone layer will be considered and debated in light of the new information in the 2006 assessment reports and considering the Synthesis Report findings presented at the Nairobi meeting. The Protocol asks three assessment panels (Scientific; Environmental Effects; and Technology and Economics) to periodically assess the state of understanding and report to the Parties. The Synthesis Report pulls together the most significant findings from the most recent reports (2006) of the three panels. Ravi serves as one of the five members of the Scientific Assessment Panel, and retired NOAA scientist Dan Albritton is one of the three Cochairs of the SAP.
Significance: NOAA plays many roles in leading, authoring, reviewing, and disseminating the periodic state-of-understanding scientific assessments regarding the ozone layer. NOAA research on the observations, understanding, and modeling of the ozone layer is highly cited in the 2006 and earlier assessments (1989, 1991, 1994, 1998, 2002). The most recent (2006) scientific assessment was published in April of this year. The work contributes to programs of NOAA's Climate Goal, and it serves NOAA's mission to provide scientific information in support of national and international decisionmaking.