September 16 marks the 40th anniversary of the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and the International Day for the protection of the ozone layer 2025. The World Meteorological Organization’s ozone bulletin (“The Bulletin”) , issued on the same day, World Meteorological Organization that the low levels of ozone depletion observed by the 2024 are helping to restore the Earth’s protective ozone layer, the recovery is expected to continue for decades to come.
In the 2024, the depth of the Antarctic ozone hole was below the 1990-2020 average and the area was smaller than the 2020-20202023, the bulletin said. This is partly due to year-to-year fluctuations caused by naturally occurring atmospheric factors, but this long-term positive trend reflects the success of concerted action by the international community.
The Vienna Convention recognizes stratospheric ozone depletion as a global problem and provides a framework for mobilizing international cooperation in ozone research, systematic observation and scientific assessment.
The communiqué noted that, to date, the Ozone Montreal Protocol had phased out over 99 per cent of the production and consumption of restricted ozone-depleting substances, these substances have been used in air conditioning, fire foam, hair gel and so on. As a result, the ozone layer is expected to return to 1980s levels by mid-century, significantly reducing the risk of skin cancer, cataracts and ecosystem damage from excessive UV exposure.