CSL News & Events:

2007 News & Events

Ravishankara to Present Synthesis Report Findings at Montreal Protocol Meeting

4 September 2007

Director of CSD, Dr. A.R. Ravishankara, will attend the 19th Meeting of the Parties of the U.N. Montreal Protocol, representing the Cochairs and Steering Committee of the Montreal Protocol's Scientific Assessment Panel. At that meeting, which is being held September 17-21 in Montreal, Ravi and Cochairs of the two other Assessment Panels will present the scientific findings from the Synthesis Report of the recently completed 2006 assessments on the stratospheric ozone layer.

Background: The Meeting of the Parties is an annual, formal decision-taking meeting of the over 190 nations that are Parties to the Montreal Protocol, an international United Nations agreement forged in 1987 that protects the ozone layer. At the 19th MOP, 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 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 Steering Committee of the Scientific Assessment Panel, and retired NOAA scientist Dan Albritton is one of the three Cochairs of that Panel.

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.