Does the right hand know what the left hand is doing?

The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, in short, the Montreal Protocol (MP), is a protocol to the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer: it is designed to protect the Earth’s ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances responsible for ozone depletion. The MP entered into force in January 1989 and is considered the most successful international environmental treaty (Oberthür 2001: 358). ¹ Adopted in Kyoto in December 1997 and in force since February 2005, the Kyoto Protocol complements the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) by setting obligations for industrialised countries to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), thus fostering the UNFCCC’s goal of achieving the ‘stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system’ (Mintzer and Leonard 1994).