Hot topic: Do we risk unravelling the recovery of the ozone layer?

Our recovering ozone shield could yet be wiped out by unmitigated global warming unless radical action is taken to cut emissions, writes John Gibbons

Scientists working for the British Antarctic Survey shocked the world in 1985 with the announcement that they had discovered a massive ‘hole’ in the ozone layer covering almost the entire continent of Antarctica. Photo: Sebnem Coskun/Anadolu Agency

Global efforts to tackle both climate change and biodiversity loss have been underway in earnest for at least the last three decades, yet our best efforts to date have been an unmitigated failure. Emissions continue to spiral, temperatures climb and ecosystems buckle under ever-expanding human impacts.

Amid the deluge of ecological bad news, small wonder that the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) this week celebrated the most significant environmental success story of the last half-century: the battle to heal the ozone layer.