Ozone layer could heal within a few decades: UN
- UN weather agency cites current policy for improvement
- Ozone layer could heal to 1980s level by 2040 in some areas of the world
- UN Secretary-General: Healing needed as Earth heats up
In this NASA false-color image, the blue and purple shows the hole in Earth’s protective ozone layer over Antarctica on Oct. 30, 2023. This year’s ozone hole was about average size for the last 20 years. (NASA via AP)
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(NewsNation) — If current policies remain in place, the Earth’s ozone layer could be be fully healed in some points by 2040, the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization predicts.
The ozone layer, a protective layer of gas in our planet’s stratosphere that absorbs harmful ultraviolet-B radiation from the sun, is slowly but surely healing, according to the organization.
The newest scientific assessment says the layer “is expected to recover to 1980 values (before the appearance of the ozone hole) by around 2066 over the Antarctic, by 2045 over the Arctic and by 2040 for the rest of the world.”
WMO thanks the Montreal Protocol — and its Kigali Amendment — for the progress. It’s an international agreement that brought the production of “damaging ozone-depleting substances” to an end.
“The Protocol’s Kigali Amendment, which focuses on phasing down hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) – powerful climate-warming gases – can contribute to advancing climate mitigation efforts, protecting people and planet,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said. “And that is needed more than ever, as temperature records continue to shatter.”
Fueled by a sweltering summer, 2024 could be Earth’s hottest year on record, according to European climate service Copernicus.
And if this sounds familiar, that’s because the records the globe shattered were set just last year as human-caused climate change, with a temporary boost from an El Nino, keeps dialing up temperatures and extreme weather, scientists said.
“It’s really not surprising that we see this, this heat wave, that we see these temperature extremes,” Copernicus Director Carlo Buontempo told AP. “We are bound to see more.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
