The United Nations General Assembly created International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, also known as Ozone Day, which is observed on September 16. This designation was made on December 19, 2000, to mark the occasion of the signing of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer by various countries in 1987.
The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was signed on September 16, 1987, and the UN General Assembly declared that day to be the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer in 1994. The ozone hole was closed 30 years after the protocol was signed. Since the gases that cause ozone depletion are chemical in nature, their effects are anticipated to last for 50 to 100 years.
Scientists say the future looks good for the ozone layer. It may recover to pre-1980 levels over the next 50 years — sometime between 2050 and 2065 — if we stick to goals set in international treaties.
The Vienna Convention and the Montreal Protocol, for instance, became the first treaties in the history of the UN to achieve universal ratification on September 16, 2009. And September 16 is now commonly known as World Ozone Day, or the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer.
