Which one of the following is associated with the issue of control and phasing out of the use of ozone-depleting substances?
Answer & explanation
Answer: (b) Montreal Protocol
The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (1987) is the treaty that controls and phases out the production and consumption of ozone-depleting substances such as CFCs, halons and carbon tetrachloride. The other three deal with money, greenhouse gases and biodiversity.
- ✗ (a) The Bretton Woods Conference (1944) set up the post-war monetary system and led to the IMF and the World Bank. It had nothing to do with the environment.
- ✓ (b) The Montreal Protocol phases out the production and consumption of ozone-depleting chemicals. Its target substances include CFCs, halons, carbon tetrachloride and methyl chloroform.
- ✗ (c) The Kyoto Protocol deals with cutting greenhouse gas emissions such as CO2 (climate change), not with ozone-depleting substances. Like the later Paris Agreement, it is an emissions-reduction agreement.
- ✗ (d) The Nagoya Protocol is under the Convention on Biological Diversity. It deals with access to genetic resources and fair sharing of benefits, not with ozone.
Remember · Montreal Protocol (1987) = phase-out of ozone-depleting substances like CFCs. Kyoto = greenhouse gases. Nagoya = access and benefit sharing of genetic resources. Bretton Woods = IMF and World Bank.
📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Indian Economic Development, Ch 7 (practise this chapter) · Class 9 Exploration, Ch 13 (practise this chapter)
Sources
- The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer – UNEP Ozone Secretariat ↗ “is a global agreement to protect the Earth’s ozone layer by phasing out the chemicals that deplete it.”
- NCERT Class 11 · Indian Economic Development, Chapter 7 “This led to the adoption of the Montreal Protocol banning the use of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) compounds, as well as other ozone depleting chemicals such as carbon tetrachloride, trichloroethane”
- NCERT Class 9 · Exploration, Chapter 13 “the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement in which countries were supposed to reduce their CO2 emissions have been less successful.”
Question: UPSC Civil Services (Preliminary) 2015, General Studies Paper I. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 25 Oct 2026 (how we verify). ·
