1、CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress LegalLegal SidebarSidebar Stratospheric Ozone Treaties and the Kigali Amendment: Ratification Considerations March 23, 2022 For at least four decades, the United States has been engaged in global efforts to protect the earths stratosp
2、heric ozone layer. The stratospheric ozone layer absorbs ultraviolet solar radiation that can otherwise result in increased risks of skin cancers, cataracts, and harm to agricultural crops and marine life. Global measures to restore stratospheric ozone include the framework Vienna Convention for the
3、 Protection of the Ozone Layer, ratified with Senate consent in 1986, and its affiliated Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, ratified with Senate consent in 1988. Both treaties have universal membership of all United Nations member and observer states. Consistent with their
4、 Montreal Protocol obligations, countries have effectively reduced ozone-depleting substances. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the atmospheric levels of nearly all substances subject to the Montreal Protocol have declined substantially in the past two decades, resulting
