In these days of rapidly escalating climate catastrophe, it can be hard to find shreds of good news. The results emerging from the Montreal Protocol, a 1987 treaty designed to protect Earth’s atmospheric ozone layer, are a welcome exception.  

Often held up as a success story of international cooperation, the protocol’s global ban on ozone-damaging commercial compounds—such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)—has led to the recovery of the ozone layer in the stratosphere, which absorbs dangerous ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the Sun. As it turns out, according to new research, the Montreal Protocol is even more important to life on Earth than previously quantified. 

The protocol has shielded plants around the world from harmful UV rays that would have reduced their ability to store carbon, giving Earth more of a fighting chance against climate change, according to a study published on Wednesday in Nature. 

Previous studies have assessed the Montreal Protocol’s power to mitigate climate change by limiting CFCs, which are a powerful greenhouse gas, but a team led by Paul Young, an atmospheric and climate scientist at Lancaster University, […]