The ozone hole over Antarctica was smaller in 2025 than it has been in most years since the early 1990s, according to the World Meteorological Organization. Scientists attribute the long-term recovery to the Montreal Protocol, the international agreement that phased out chemicals known to damage the ozone layer.
The progress is a reminder that environmental repair can happen when countries stay with a shared solution. The ozone layer is not fully recovered yet, but this story offers something rare and valuable: a global problem that is moving in the right direction because people acted together.