How does ozone depletion affect Earth’s climate through the greenhouse effect?

Stratospheric ozone depletion influences Earth’s climate through a complex interaction involving radiative forcing. While the loss of ozone allows more solar radiation to reach the surface—which would typically cause warming—this effect is countered by the loss of ozone’s greenhouse properties.1

Because ozone is a greenhouse gas, it normally absorbs longwave radiation emitted by Earth’s surface and re-emits it downward. As stratospheric ozone levels decrease, there is less ozone available to absorb and re-emit this longwave radiation. This reduction in downward re-emission overwhelms the warming effect of increased solar penetration, resulting in a net negative radiative forcing at the surface. Consequently, ozone depletion has contributed to a modest cooling effect on the lower stratosphere and a slight negative radiative forcing of Earth’s surface since the 1970s.1