EVENT
Montreal Protocol
The 1987 international treaty that successfully governed ozone-depleting chemicals — Gore's most-cited precedent for what successful democratic coordination on existential technology risks looks like in practice.
The Montreal Protocol is the 1987 international treaty that phased out the production of chlorofluorocarbons and other ozone-depleting substances, substantially reversing the damage to the stratospheric ozone layer that had threatened human and ecological health. The protocol is the most successful international environmental treaty in history, universally ratified and substantially achieving its objectives. For Gore, it is the foundational precedent establishing that democratic societies can successfully govern transformative technology risks when the scientific evidence is clear, technological alternatives are available, and political will is mobilized. The protocol's success is the empirical refutation of the claim that international governance of powerful technologies is impossible.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The protocol's operational features distinguish it from subsequent climate efforts. Clear empirical triggers — measured ozone levels — connected scientific evidence to regulatory response without requiring renewed political negotiation. Industry alternatives — hydrofluorocarbons and other substitutes — were available when the protocol took effect, making compliance economically feasible. Enforcement mechanisms — trade sanctions against non-complying nations — created