This year marks the 25th anniversary of the opening for signature of the Montreal Protocol to the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer. The Montreal Protocol is often hailed as one of the most successful multilateral environmental agreements and the framework structure of the regime partly served as a background for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Not surprisingly the success of the Montreal Protocol and the relative failure of the climate change regime has led commentators to question what lessons can be learned from the Montreal Protocol when it comes to climate change (notwithstanding the significant differences between the two problems). In this respect, the post written by Roger Pielke Jr over on China Dialogue offers couple of good points. Here is Pilke Jr’s conclusion:
“Imagine what the climate issue would look like if it were not focused on messy public debates over science in an effort to force political regulations to stimulate new technologies. What if, instead, the focus was on technology first? It worked in the case of ozone, so why not climate? “
As a side note, Pilke Jr’s blog is generally worth following for those with an interest in climate change studies.
