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From to , at the United Nations (UN) 12th Meeting of the Ozone Research Managers in Geneva, Canada tabled its report on ozone and ozone-depleting substances. One of the aims is to share the latest findings on greenhouse gas emissions whose use is restricted or prohibited.
Montreal Protocol
Canada is a Party to the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, the first international agreement on the subject. The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, commonly known as the “Montreal Protocol,” was subsequently ratified in . To date, this protocol is the only United Nations treaty to have been ratified by every country in the world. Since then, it has become the main strategic framework for countries working together to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the use of ozone-depleting substances.
One of the aims of the Montreal Protocol is to progressively reduce the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). The international community set about phasing out CFCs, but new products began to be adopted to replace them: hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which are powerful greenhouse gases. As the concentration of HFCs in the atmosphere continued to rise, the Montreal Protocol was amended in (Kigali Amendment) to phase them out.
Satellite data to enforce restrictions
Canada’s SCISAT mission, which was launched in , supports compliance with the restrictions imposed by the Montreal Protocol. Since its commissioning, it has been used to establish the concentrations of ozone-depleting gases, as well as to determine the distribution of several molecules associated with atmospheric pollution and forest fires. Recent advances in SCISAT data analysis have led to the detection of several HFCs. The satellite’s instruments can measure 70 different gases in the atmosphere, many of them present in minute quantities. That is more than any other satellite currently in orbit.
Since , CSA has contributed to the Canadian report provided to the UN‘s Ozone Research Managers. In this year’s report, our country highlights a number of scientific discoveries, including that of a chemical process in the atmosphere that explains the depletion of the ozone layer after intense forest fires. In addition, SCISAT helped measure the extreme injection of water vapour into the atmosphere during the eruption of the Hunga Tonga volcano in . This water vapour, which acts as a greenhouse gas, circled the globe in a week and spread from pole to pole in three months.
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