Branches of international environmental law - Introduction to International Environmental Law - page 157

Atmosphere conservation
Extensive atmospheric conservation began with the Convention on Long-
range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP) negotiations under the auspices
of the UN Economic Commission for Europe; it was the fi rst treaty regime
that addressed air pollution from diffuse sources. Global atmospheric problems
were fi rst discovered in the mid-1980s. The ozone layer that protects life on
Earth from ultraviolet rays from the Sun was growing thinner and was totally
absent in some places due to CFC emissions (chlorofl uorocarbons).
It was the ozone depletion that awakened humankind to the realization that
our actions do actually impact on enormous natural systems. This awakening also
contributed to the acceptance at the end of the 1980s that climate change was
possible. It was in the mid-1980s that consideration was fi rst given to combining
political-legal actions in order to avert the atmospheric environmental problem.
Meanwhile, the ozone and climate regimes are worlds apart in the minds of
specialists. The ozone regime is considered a success story in international
environmental law, while the climate regime is considered a failure. It is also
good to acknowledge the connection between the treaty regimes, which have
mutual infl uence. Some kind of law to protect the atmosphere could indeed
be helpful, if it was able to connect environmental problems with the mecha-
nisms administering them. It is useful to look at how these two, perhaps the
most essential of international environmental regimes, evolved, and to
consider why one of them succeeded and the other one did not. How could
increased cooperation between these regimes help?
The ozone regime
The ozone regime was launched after the adoption of the Vienna Framework
Convention in 1985. Although the Convention mainly establishes information
exchange programmes and encourages states to increase scientifi c research on
ozone depletion, it is based on the precautionary principle: governments were
prepared to work together to solve a global problem even before scientifi c
certainty about ozone depletion and its effects existed. The Montreal Protocol
adopted in 1987 was also based on the precautionary principle: although
there was more scientifi c data about the phenomenon of ozone depletion (the
wide ozone hole above Antarctica was a proven fact, for example), its effects
were largely unknown. The explicit objective of the Protocol was to eliminate
substances that caused ozone depletion.
The ozone regime was planned in an innovative way: it was able to evolve
as new scientifi c knowledge emerged about the substances that caused ozone
depletion and how rapidly the ozone layer was reducing. New ozone-deplet-
ing substances could be added to the ozone system through amendments; these
are binding only after ratifi cation by each state.
The schedules and quantities for the reduction of targeted substances can be
changed through adjustments to the schedules, without the consent of every