How Big Business Can Save the Climate

摘要

In September 1987, representatives of 24 countries met in Montreal and accomplished a rare feat in international politics: a successful environmental accord. The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, which un Secretary-General Kofi Annan later called "perhaps the single most successful international agreement to date," set the ambitious goal of phasing out chlorofluorocarbons (cfcs) and other dangerous chemicals. It worked: by 1996, developed countries had stopped their production and consumption of cfcs, and by 2006, the 191 countries that had ratified the protocol had eliminated 95 percent of global ozone-depleting emissions.