Amid all the backstabbing, these global success stories engender hope

Anyone who was at school in the Eighties will remember learning how everyday items, like fridges and deodorants, turned out to be inflicting untold damage. The chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) lurking inside these apparently harmless objects were killing off the ozone layer in the Earth’s atmosphere, destroying our protection from the depredations of the Sun.

But worry no longer. This week, a study concluded that the ozone layer is recovering. The hole that was partially inflicted by those CFCs has shrunk by 1.5 million square miles since 2000. Scientists have found the “first fingerprints of healing”, demonstrating that the ozone layer is making a comeback.

How did this happen? The answer is that in 1987 the world collectively banned CFCs in household items. Every country came together to sign the Montreal Protocol – even states that usually refuse to agree to anything, such as North Korea. As a result, the ozone layer is growing again and many fewer people have suffered skin cancer or the various other ravages inflicted by the Sun.

At a time when there is almost universal cynicism about the benefits of international cooperation, symbolised by Britain’s decision to walk away from the European Union, this success story is worth remembering.

Whenever the nations of the world get together for a conference, we always set our expectations at rock bottom. And very often this is justified: witness the farcical Copenhagen summit on climate change in 2009, which turned into a Tower of Babel and achieved nothing. Any process involving the United Nations can be slow, infuriating and futile.

But every so often, humanity does the right thing. In 1979 the World Health Organisation declared victory in the campaign against smallpox, announcing that the disease had been eradicated by the power of global vaccination.

Not many people have noticed, but we now stand on the verge of achieving an equally crushing defeat of polio. As recently as 1988, this incurable disease – which attacks the central nervous system and causes paralysis, deformity or death – was present in 125 countries. In that year, 350,000 polio cases were recorded worldwide, with children under the age of five being most vulnerable.

Since then, a massive vaccination campaign, funded collectively through the UN, has immunised at least 2.5 billion children. Polio has been vanquished in one country after another. Because the virus lives only in people – and not in animals – it is among the handful of biological scourges that humanity holds the power to destroy.

Today, polio has been driven back to a final stronghold in just two countries: Afghanistan and Pakistan. Even there, the disease is in retreat. Last year, there were only 74 recorded cases – or 0.02 per cent of the global total in 1988. The latest target is to rid the world of polio by 2018; for once, that particular international goal is realistic.

But there is an easy response to these tales of optimism. Everyone is against smallpox, polio and ozone-killing CFCs. No country – not even North Korea – wants to become the friend of these particular scourges. Everyone can agree they are common enemies and so everyone has an interest in cooperating to defeat them. But what happens when there is a genuine clash of interests, with one group of countries facing off against another?

Very often, this does indeed sabotage international cooperation. But this still does not justify automatic cynicism. Back in 2014, the Arms Trade Treaty introduced the first global rules on the sale of conventional weapons. Few areas of policy involve more vital interests than military exports. Yet, so far, 132 countries have signed this treaty.

When it came before the UN General Assembly in 2013, no fewer than 154 countries voted in favour. Russia and China, fearful for their own arms industries, were even more anxious to avoid the opprobrium that would have come from voting against the treaty. So they abstained and allowed it to pass. The only refuseniks were Syria, Iran and – naturally – North Korea.

So the ozone layer is back, polio is about to be wiped out and selling guns to all and sundry is a bit more difficult than previously. After a week in politics that has been characterised by backstabbing, it is good to remember that, just occasionally, we human beings are capable of enlightened cooperation.