International Institute of Refrigeration

Summary Sheet│Montreal Protocol

Introduction
The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer is an international
treaty that was adopted in 1987. It was initially designed to reduce the production and
consumption of ozone depleting substances (ODS) in order to reduce their abundance
in the atmosphere, and thereby protect the Earth’s ozone layer. Chlorofluorocarbons
and halons were the first chemicals to be regulated.

Nevertheless, the Protocol has been amended several times:

• Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and halons’ production and consumption are to be
completely phased out.
• Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and hydrofluorocarbon (HFCs), chemicals often
used as refrigerants, were added to the initial list.
The latter were used to replace CFCs, because they do not deplete the ozone layer.
But as they contribute to global warming, they became a target of the Montreal
Protocol in 2016, with the Kigali Amendment.

Initially signed by 46 countries, the Montreal protocol has nearly 200 signatories
in 2017. It schedules some actions until the middle 21th century, since the HCFCs
phaseout in developing countries is programmed in 2040.

See also the UNEP webpage on the Montreal Protocol

Montreal Protocol - Full text amended (2016)

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Summary Sheet│Montreal Protocol

Chronology
The Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, adopted in 1985, entered into force
in 1985. It is the first Convention of any kind to achieve universal ratification. Its main purpose was to
act as a framework on stratospheric ozone protection, and did not require any concrete actions.
Two years after the adoption of the Vienna Convention, the Montreal Protocol on Substances that
Deplete the Ozone Layer was agreed upon to take concrete measures to control ozone-depleting
substances. It was agreed by 189 Parties on September 16, 1987.
Over the years, several amendments have been made to the Protocol after ratification by the various
Parties of the Vienna Convention. The original Protocol of 1987 and its amendments are listed below,
with a link to the United Nation Treaty Collection giving information on the status of ratification of the
agreements.
Table 1: Chronology of the successive agreements

Agreement Date of signature Date of entry into force

Montreal Protocol - Full text (1987) September 16, 1987 January 1, 1989

London Amendment - Full text June 29, 1990 August 10, 1992.

Copenhagen Amendment - Full text November 25, 1992 June 14, 1994

Montreal Amendment - Full text September 17, 1997 November 10, 1999

Beijing Amendment - Full text December 3, 1999 February 25, 2002

Beijing Adjustment - Full text October 16, 2007 November 14, 2007

Kigali Amendment - Full text October 15, 2016 January 1, 2019

Measures foreseen by the Montreal Protocol

• The Protocol divides countries into two categories:
□□ Developing countries (operating under Article 5 of the Montreal Protocol): Parties whose
annual calculated level of consumption of the controlled substances in Annex A is less than 0.3 kilo-
grams per capita on the date of the entry into force of the Protocol for it, or any time thereafter
until January 1, 1999. The calculated level is obtained by multiplying the amount of consumed
substances by the ODP of these substances (example: 1 ton of HCFC 22 has a calculated level of
0.055 t since the ODP of HCFC22 is 0.055). The list of the developing countries is available here.

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Summary Sheet│Montreal Protocol

□□ Developed countries (operating under Article 2 of the Montreal Protocol): Andorra, Australia,
Azerbaijan, Belarus, Canada, Holy See, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Monaco,
New Zealand, Norway, Russian Federation, San Marino, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Ukraine, United
States of America, Uzbekistan and each country of the European Union.
The Montreal Protocol forecasts different schedules for developed and developing countries.
• The measures contained in the initial Montreal Protocol and its amendments aim to achieve a
gradual ban on production and consumption of ozone-depleting substances (ODS) such as CFCs. To
achieve this goal, they have been gradually replaced in many applications (including refrigeration)
by HCFCs first and then by HFCs. Since 1997, those chemicals were gradually added to the list of the
substances controlled by the Protocol:
□□ The Copenhagen Amendment (1992) incorporated a phaseout of HCFCS beginning in 2004
for developed countries.
□□ The Montreal Amendment (1997) added the phaseout of HCFCs for developing countries.
□□ Finally, the Kigali amendment (2016) added schedules to phase down the production and
consumption of HFCs, which are not ODS but are greenhouse gases, in both developed and devel-
oping countries.
• The terms “production” and “consumption” are defined as follows:
□□ Production: amount of controlled substances produced, minus the amount destroyed by
technologies to be approved by the Parties and minus the amount entirely used as feedstock in
the manufacture of other chemicals. The amount recycled and reused is not to be considered as
“production”.
□□ Consumption: production plus imports minus exports of controlled substances.
Consumption = production + imports - export

Phase-out and phase-down schedules

The original Montreal Protocol of 1987 only concerned the phase down of CFCs production and con-
sumption in developing countries. The London Amendment (1990) required the complete phaseout
of CFCs between 1996 and 2000 in developed countries, and by 2010 in developing countries.
HCFCs were added to the list of controlled substances to be phased out by 2030 in the Copenhagen
Amendment for developed countries, and in the Montreal Amendment for developing countries which
schedules the total phase-out by 2040.
Finally, the Kigali amendment (2016) added schedules to phase-down the production and consumption
of HFCs in both developed and developing countries.
The different schedules are listed below.

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Summary Sheet│Montreal Protocol

Table 1: CFC phaseout schedules (production and consumption)

Article 2 countries Article 5 countries
CFC Annex A
• Reference level: average of years 1995-1997
• Freeze from January 1,1999
• Minus 50% January 1, 2005
• Minus 85% January 1, 2007
CFCs
• Phase-out by January 1, 2010 with possible
Phase-out by January 1, 1996 with possible exemptions for essential uses.
exemptions for essential uses.
CFC Annex B
• Reference level: average of years 1998-2000
• Minus 20% by January 1, 2003
• Minus 85% by January 1, 2007
• Phaseout by January 1, 2010

Table 2: HCFC phaseout schedule (consumption)

Article 2 countries Article 5 countries

• Reference level: average of year 1989: 2.8% of

CFCs + 100% of HCFCs consumed
• Freeze from January 1, 1996
• Reference level: average of year 2015
• Minus 35% by January 1, 2004
• Freeze from January 1, 2016
• Minus 65% by January 1, 2010
• Phaseout by January 1, 2040
• Minus 90% by January 1, 2015
• Minus 99.5% by January 1, 2020
• Phaseout by January 1, 2030

Table 3: HCFC phaseout schedule (production)

Limit of HCFC production Developed countries Developing countries
Deadline 2004 2016
Reference year 1982 2015
Average of the following 2 values:
Limit of production • Production of HCFCs* + 2.8% production of CFCs*
• Consumption of HCFCs* + 2.8% consumption of CFCs*
* Production and consumption values for the reference year

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Summary Sheet│Montreal Protocol

Table 4: HFC phase down schedule (consumption)

Non article 5 Non article 5
Article 5: Group 1 Article 5 : Group 2
(Main group) (exceptions1)
Average HFC Average HFC Average HFC Average HFC
Baseline consumption levels consumption levels consumption levels consumption levels
formula for 2020, 2021 & 2022 + for 2024, 2025 & 2026 + for 2011, 2012 & 2013 + for 2011, 2012 & 2013 +
65% of HCFC baseline 65% of HCFC baseline 15% of HCFC baseline 25% of HCFC baseline
Freeze 2024 2028
Step 1 2029 -10% 2032 -10% 2019 -10% 2020 -5%
Step 2 2035 -30% 2037 -20% 2024 -40% 2025 -35%
Step 3 2040 -50% 2042 -30% 2029 -70% 2029 -70%
Step 4 2045 -80% 2047 -85% 2034 -80% 2034 -80%
Plateau 2036 -85% 2036 -85%
(For further information, see also the IIR summary sheet on the Kigali Amendment)

Studies on the impact of the Montreal Protocol on the ozone layer

According to a study1 published in 2012 in the Journal of Geophysical Research, modelling shows
that the growth of ozone depleting substances would have led to a global collapse of the ozone layer
in the mid-21st century. The researchers studied the reversibility of these impacts following complete
cessations of ODS emissions in the mid-2050s. They found that impacts are reversed on various time
scale, in particular in the polar caps. Nevertheless, the authors showed that ozone in the lower strat-
osphere recovers very quickly.
Another study2 published in Nature Communications in 2015 shows that by 2013 the Montreal
Protocol had already achieved significant benefits for the ozone layer, since the Antarctic ozone hole
is expected to disappear by 2050. Thanks to a modelling, it was estimated that without the Montreal
Protocol, this hole would have grown in size by 40% in 2013, and other holes would have appeared.
A 2016 study3 published in Science showed that for the first time in 30 years, the gaping hole in the
ozone layer above Antarctica actually appears to be healing, since the size of the ozone hole has shrunk
by approximately 1.5 million square miles in 15 years. According to the researchers, the phaseout of
CFCs has led to a slow recovery of the ozone layer.

1
Garcia, Rolando R. Kinnison, Douglas E. Marsh, Daniel R. ““World avoided” simulations with the Whole Atmosphere Community
Climate Model” Journal of Geophysical Research /Vol. 117 (2012). DOI: 10.1029/2012JD018430
2
Chipperfield, M. P. “Quantifying the ozone and ultraviolet benefits already achieved by the Montreal Protocol.” Nature Communication/
Article number: 7233 (2015). DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8233.
3
Salomon, Susan. Ivy, Diane J. Kinnison D, et al. “Emergence of healing in the Antarctic ozone layer”. Science. (2016). DOI: 10.1126/
science.aae0061

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Summary Sheet│Montreal Protocol

Additional details
1. List of the 147 Parties categorized as operating under Article 5 of the Montreal Protocol
Afghanistan Djibouti Malaysia
Albania Dominica Maldives
Algeria Dominican Republic
Mali Saudi Arabia
Angola Ecuador
Marshall Islands Senegal
Antigua and Barbuda Egypt
Mauritania Serbia
Argentina El Salvador
Mauritius Seychelles Sierra Leone
Armenia Equatorial Guinea
Mexico Singapore
Bahamas Eritrea
Micronesia (Federated States Solomon Islands
Bahrain Ethiopia
of) Somalia
Bangladesh Fiji
Mongolia South Africa
Barbados Gabon
Montenegro South Sudan
Gambia
Belize Morocco Sri Lanka
Georgia
Benin Mozambique Sudan
Ghana
Bhutan Myanmar Suriname
Grenada
Bolivia Namibia Swaziland
Guatemala
Bosnia and Herzegovina Nauru Syrian Arab Republic
Guinea
Botswana Nepal Thailand
Guinea Bissau
Brazil Nicaragua Republic of Macedonia
Guyana
Brunei Darussalam Niger Timor-Leste
Haiti
Burkina Faso Nigeria Togo
Honduras
Burundi Niue Tonga
India
Côte d’Ivoire Oman Trinidad and Tobago
Indonesia
Cabo Verde Pakistan Tunisia
Iran (Islamic Republic of)
Cambodia Palau Turkey
Iraq
Cameroon Panama Turkmenistan
Jamaica
Central African Republic Papua New Guinea Tuvalu
Jordan
Chad Paraguay Uganda
Kenya
Chile Peru United Arab Emirates
Kiribati
China Philippines United Republic of
Kuwait Tanzania
Colombia Qatar
Kyrgyzstan Uruguay
Comoros Republic of Korea
Lao People’s Democratic Vanuatu
Congo Republic Republic of Moldova
Venezuela
Cook Islands Lebanon Rwanda
Viet Nam
Costa Rica Lesotho Saint Kitts and Nevis
Yemen
Cuba Liberia Saint Lucia
Zambia
Democratic People’s Libya Saint Vincent and the
Republic of Korea Grenadines Zimbabwe
Madagascar
Democratic Republic of Samoa
the Congo Malawi
Sao Tome and Principe

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Summary Sheet│Montreal Protocol

2. List of controlled substances

The substances controlled by the Montreal Protocol are listed in the annexes, as follows:
□□ Annex A: Chlorofluorocarbons and halons.

□□ Annex B: Chlorofluorocarbons, carbon tetrachloride and methyl chloroform

□□ Annex C: HCFCs, HBFCs and bromochloromethane

□□ Annex E: Methyl bromide

□□ Annex F: HFCs

To consult the complete list of the controlled substances, please follow this link.

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