How science guides industry choice of alternatives to ozone-depleting substances

Abstract

This chapter documents how scientific discovery and international cooperation protect the stratospheric ozone layer and the climate. It describes how citizens, nongovernmental organizations, policy makers, and company executives historically responded to new discoveries in stratospheric ozone science and how new scientific discoveries have motivated the strengthening of the Montreal Protocol by accelerating the phaseout of hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs). At each stage of a historic scientific breakthrough, a different set of actors were the drivers of social change. Using case studies, we identify similarities and differences in how science is important to the evolving policy to protect the Earth for future generations. This chapter contrasts the historic response to science regarding chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) with the current policy response to new scientific evidence that was the foundation of the recent global agreement accelerating the HCFC phaseout under the Montreal Protocol. The new science quantifies how the HCFC phaseout can significantly protect the climate in the immediate future, particularly if low-Global Warming Potential (GWP) refrigerants, not-in-kind alternatives, and high-efficiency technologies are encouraged by regulatory, market, and other incentives. Finally, the spatial relationship between significant scientific announcements and several of the path-breaking corporate leadership pledges that transformed markets toward ozone-safe technology are introduced. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009.