1. Report of the Environmental Effects
Assessment Panel
EFFECTS ON PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT
STRATOSPHERIC OZONE DEPLETION
CLIMATE EFFECTS AND FEEDBACKS
OZONE DEPLETING SUBSTANCES
36th Open-ended Working Group of the Parties to the
United Nations Montreal Protocol
20-24 July 2015
Paris, France
Co-chairs: Prof Janet Bornman (Aus), Prof Min Shao (China), Prof Nigel Paul (UK)
HUMAN HEALTH
TERRESTRIAL AND AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
(including crops and fisheries)
CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS
AIR & WATER QUALITY

2. Report of the Environmental Effects Assessment Panel
THE 2014 ASSESSMENT REPORTS SIGNIFICANT SCIENTIFIC ADVANCES IN UNDERSTANDING THE MECHANISMS BY WHICH STRATOSPHERIC OZONE DEPLETION CAN AFFECT HUMANS, OTHER ORGANISMS, AND THE PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROCESSES OF THE ENVIRONMENT, PRIMARILY THROUGH RESPONSES TO UV RADIATION.
44 authors/co-authors from 17 countries, and 45 reviewers.
Report assessed 1600 research papers, covering subject areas from cancer biology to construction polymers, and from marine phytoplankton to global changes in UV radiation.
THIS SUMMARY WILL FOCUS ON THE MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS RELEVANT TO THE EFFECTS OF OZONE DEPLETION ON PEOPLE AND ECOSYSTEMS
EFFECTS ON PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT
HUMAN HEALTH
TERRESTRIAL AND AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
(including crops and fisheries)
CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS
AIR & WATER QUALITY

3. STRATOSPHERIC OZONE DEPLETION
OZONE DEPLETING SUBSTANCES
CLIMATE EFFECTS AND FEEDBACKS
INCREASED ULTRAVIOLET-B (UV-B) RADIATION
UV-B radiation
= nm
EFFECTS ON PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT
HUMAN HEALTH
TERRESTRIAL AND AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
(including crops and fisheries)
CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS
AIR & WATER QUALITY

4. CHANGES IN UV-B RADIATION WITH THE SUCCESSFUL MONTREAL PROTOCOL
With few exceptions, changes in UV-B radiation since the 1990s are small, and due less to the effects of ozone depletion than to other factors (cloud, snow and ice cover)
At several Arctic and Scandinavian sites, this led to an averaged increased erythemal (sunburning) dose by 40-50%
Large short-term increases in UV-B have been measured at some locations in response to episodic decreases of ozone at high latitudes, including the Northern hemisphere.
Arctic ozone depletion in spring 2011 led to measured short-term increases (80-160%) in UV-B radiation in Alaska, Canada, Greenland & Scandinavia, and modelled increases (15-25%) at lower latitudes

5. CHANGES IN UV-B RADIATION WITHOUT THE MONTREAL PROTOCOL
Without the Montreal Protocol, by the end of 21st century UV radiation around the globe would have exceeded levels previously experienced even in the most extreme environments.
Now a body of published research modelling the changes in UV radiation that would have occurred over the 21st century WITHOUT successful control of ODS.
The calculated clear-sky UV index for November 2065 in the “expected future” (with the Montreal Protocol) compared with that in the “world avoided” (with no Montreal Protocol). From Newman and McKenzie, 2011
Values over 11 are considered extreme
Maximum UVI without the Montreal Protocol is approx. 25
WITH MONTREAL PROTOCOL
WITHOUT MONTREAL PROTOCOL

6. Human health and exposure to solar UV radiation
INCREASED ULTRAVIOLET-B RADIATION
Future changes in UV radiation may affect tropospheric chemistry in ways that will increase the severity of ground- level ozone and particle pollution, with possible negative consequences for health in some areas.
EFFECTS ON PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT
HUMAN HEALTH
TERRESTRIAL AND AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
(including crops and fisheries)
CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS
AIR & WATER QUALITY

7. Human health and exposure to solar UV radiation
UV exposure
Detrimental effects of too little UV
Damaging effects of too much UV
RESEARCH OVER THE LAST 30 YEARS HAS CLARIFIED THAT HUMAN HEALTH CAN BE NEGATIVELY AFFECTED FROM EITHER TOO MUCH OR TOO LITTLE UV RADIATION
With the Montreal protocol (Now)
the balance between these contrasting effects of UV RADIATION is largely determined by personal circumstances and behaviour

8. Human health and exposure to solar UV radiation
With the Montreal protocol, changing behaviour by many fair-skinned populations with regard to sun exposure has probably had a more significant effect on human health than increasing UV-B irradiance due to ozone depletion.
Strategies to avoid over-exposure to solar UV radiation remain important for public health, but should aim to balance the harmful and beneficial effects of sun exposure.
With the Montreal protocol (Now)

9. Human health and exposure to solar UV radiation
Damaging effects of too much UV
SHORT TERM
LONG-TERM
SKIN
Sunburn
Increased skin-cancers
Basal cell & squamous cell carcinomas
Malignant melanoma
EYES
Inflammation
(photo-conjunctivitis)
Increased cataract and pterygium
IMMUNE SYSTEM: immune suppression leading to increased susceptibility to infection, reduced response to vaccinations

10. Human health and exposure to solar UV radiation
Models can, necessarily, only estimate skin cancers in the “world avoided.” Further refinement is required but the “ball-park” estimate of two million fewer cases of skin cancer per year by 2030 indicates the scale of the health benefits of the Montreal Protocol.
Total number of new cases of skin cancer per million people per year avoided by the Montreal Protocol in the year 2030.
From van Dijk et al., 2013
Without the Montreal protocol (world avoided)

11. Human health and exposure to solar UV radiation
The success of the Montreal Protocol in protecting human health will be covered in more detail in the OzonAction side event at lunch-time today.
13.00 in Conference Room IX.

12. Effects of ozone depletion on ecosystems
EFFECTS DUE TO ODS REPLACEMENTS
INCREASED ULTRAVIOLET-B RADIATION
OZONE-DEPELTION-RELATED CHANGES IN CLIMATE
EFFECTS ON PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT
HUMAN HEALTH
TERRESTRIAL AND AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
(including crops and fisheries)
CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS
AIR & WATER QUALITY

13. Effects of ozone depletion on ecosystems
No new negative environmental effects of the substitutes for the ozone depleting substances or their breakdown-products have been identified
EEAP is producing an updated paper on the environmental effects of TFA for its interim report later this year.
EFFECTS DUE TO ODS REPLACEMENTS
HFCs degrade to produce tri-fluoroacetic acid (TFA) which accumulates in water bodies.
No new evidence that predicted TFA accumulation will pose a significant threat to aquatic or terrestrial ecosystems
EFFECTS ON PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT
HUMAN HEALTH
CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS
AIR & WATER QUALITY
TERRESTRIAL AND AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
(including crops and fisheries)

14. Effects of ozone depletion on ecosystems
Improved understanding:
The role of solar UV radiation in air quality (e.g. aerosols, ground-level ozone) and water chemistry (e.g. heavy metals), and that such changes may affect ecosystems.
Solar UV radiation has significant direct effects on many organisms and environmental processes.
INCREASED ULTRAVIOLET-B (UV-B) RADIATION
INCREASED ULTRAVIOLET-B RADIATION
EFFECTS ON PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT
HUMAN HEALTH
CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS
AIR & WATER QUALITY
TERRESTRIAL AND AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
(including crops and fisheries)

15. Effects of ozone depletion on ecosystems
New understanding highlights the vulnerability of organisms and environmental processes (including food production) to very large increases in UV radiation that would have been caused by uncontrolled stratospheric ozone depletion.
However, there have been no “world-avoided” models for these effects, so their magnitude in a world where the Montreal Protocol had not controlled ozone-depleting substances has not been quantified for ecosystems.
Without the Montreal protocol (world avoided)

16. Effects of ozone depletion on ecosystems
With a few exceptions, changes in UV-B irradiances due to factors such as cloud, snow and ice cover, and UV penetration into water bodies have a more significant effect on ecosystems than UV changes due to ozone depletion over the last three decades.
Southern hemisphere ecosystems have responded to severe ozone depletion, partly due to increased UV radiation, partly due to climate-mediated effects.
With the Montreal protocol (Now)

17. Effects of ozone depletion on ecosystems
ANTARCTIC STRATOSPHERIC OZONE DEPLETION
ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION PATTERNS
REGIONAL CLIMATE
OZONE-DEPELTION-RELATED CHANGES IN CLIMATE
CHANGES IN CLIMATE
DUE TO OZONE-DEPLETION
RAINFALL
TEMPERATURE
WIND
EFFECTS ON PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT
TERRESTRIAL AND AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
(including crops and fisheries)
HUMAN HEALTH
CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS
AIR & WATER QUALITY

18. Effects of ozone depletion on ecosystems
Widespread climate-mediated ecological changes in the S Hemisphere correlated with the Antarctic ozone “holes” since the 1980s.
Increased tree growth in southern Alps.
Decreased tree growth due to drought.
Slower moss growth & changes in lake biodiversity
Rapid changes in phyto-plankton communities

19. EEAP REPORT
Overview
The success of the Montreal Protocol in preventing large, wide-scale increases in UV radiation has now been quantified through modelling “the world avoided”.
Because large increases in UV radiation have been prevented, major effects of ozone depletion on human health have been avoided. The scale of damage to health in the “world avoided” is beginning to be quantified.
Major effects of ozone depletion on most ecosystems have also been prevented, but the effects of Antarctic depletion on regional climates is having measurable impacts in the S Hemisphere, even outside of Antarctica.
Co-chairs: Prof Janet Bornman (Aus), Prof Min Shao (China), Prof Nigel Paul (UK)