Uniting Nations from Stockholm to Rio: Global Environmental Politics, 1972-92

Our current crisis of climate change was preceded by the crisis of stratospheric ozone depletion and the subsequent "hole in the ozone layer," in the 1970s and 80s. A tension between "development" and "environmental sustainability" was at the heart of global environmental politics at the United Nations during this period. This project seeks to ask how this tension was overcome during the exceptionally successful Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer in 1987. By 1992 it had been ratified by most developed as well as developing countries. Unraveling the paradox of this distinct moment of international consensus during a larger period of intense disagreement, may lend crucial insights into the global political impasse on climate change.