How Do We Change What's Possible?: Global Efforts to Combat Climate Change

In this session, we'll discuss the most successful international environmental treaty effort to date: the global efforts to reduce ozone-depleting substances. Over the past 35 years, the treaty and its amendments have successfully controlled chemicals like CFCs, HCFCs, and HFCs to mitigate both ozone depletion and (recently) climate change. Although this treaty is extremely successful today, it hasn’t always been: when ozone negotiations began in 1985 there was a complete lack of consensus around any regulation. In this talk, we’ll explore why the preferences of key countries changed over time in ways that made agreement increasingly attainable. We’ll discuss how industry adaptation - such as DuPont’s investment in ozone-friendly HCFCs and HFC chemicals in the late 1980s, or Honeywell's investment in climate-friendly HFO manufacturing in the early 2020s - underpins those changes. By examining evolution in corporate and national strategies, we’ll answer critical questions: Why do certain countries and companies choose to combat environmental problems while others resist? How can policies reshape powerful interests? Can what we learn from ozone negotiations help us make similar progress in global climate policy? Ultimately, we’ll emphasize how understanding the potential for positive feedback between industry and policy can help guide policymaking toward policies that maximize the chance of success in climate as well.