The ‘successful’ ozone-layer negotiations

It is important to distinguish between a problem and the problem-solving capacity invested in its solution. Applying this perspective to the global ozone cooperation process it is shown that evolving knowledge about ecological, technological and economic aspects of the ozone problem revealed that actors faced a quite "benign" political problem. While the ozone-layer negotiations constitute a valuable example of international cooperation, ignoring problem characteristics may result in misleading conclusions about the applicability of any lessons learned.