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Climate change: EU delays harmonised controls on powerful F-gases

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Published 02 February 2006 - Updated 05 April 2007
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F-gases fluorinated gases
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A compromise agreement on the F-gas bill leaves Austria and Denmark free to maintain stricter controls on the fluorinated gases that exacerbate global warming. F-gases are used mainly in refrigeration and air conditioning.

The European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers reached an agreement late on Tuesday 31 January on the hotly contested F-gas bill.

The proposal had pitted environmentalists against F-gas manufacturers and the refrigeration industry over whether countries like Denmark and Austria should be allowed to maintain stricter controls than elsewhere in Europe. 

It was finally agreed that they could continue to do so, leading most to believe that the Commission will drop its charges against these two countries.

Fridges, air conditioning and other 'stationary applications'

According to a Council statement, "stricter national measures adopted by 31 December 2005 may be maintained until 31 December 2012". A double legal base will therefore now apply to the regulation on 'stationary applications' such as fridges and air conditioning:

  • Internal market (Article 95 of the EC Treaty) for placing on the market, use and controls including product labelling which is now compulsory
  • Environment  (Article 175 and 176 of the EC Treaty) for monitoring, training and certification of workers, data on recovery and reporting

In addition, the Council says member states "may promote the placing on the market of equipment which uses alternatives to gases with a high global warming potential [and which] further reduce the climate impact".

As part of the compromise, a review clause has been added allowing the Commission to make further proposals before end 2008 "in the light of existing and new international commitments regarding the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions". 

Car air conditioning systems

Parliamentarians have left untouched a proposal for phasing out F-gases used in car air conditioning systems:

  • As of 2011: Ban for F-gases with a global warming potential (GWP) of more than 150 for new models coming out of factories. This effectively rules out the use of HFC-134a but allows the less potent HFC-152a, which has a global warming potential of 120. (CO2 = 1 on GWP scale).
  • As of 2017: Ban on F-gases with GWP of more than 150 for all cars
Positions: 

The Parliament, which was unable to decide on the legal base issue (EurActiv, 28 Oct. 2005), had to cave in to member state pressure to keep stricter national laws in place.

"Member States which currently have progressive legislation on fluorinated greenhouse gases have not been forced to lower their environmental standards," said MEP Avril Doyle (EPP-ED, Ireland), the rapporteur for the European Parliament. "This sends a strong signal to Member States that they will be given every encouragement from the European Institutions to meet their obligations under the Kyoto Protocol," she declared. 

Speaking at a press conference on 1 February, Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said that the measures will prevent a predicted 50% increase in F-gas emissions, leading instead to a reduction of 20%. 

The European Partnership for Energy and the Environment (EPEE), which represent manufacturers of refrigeration and air conditioning equipment relying on HFCs, welcomed the agreement as "a strong signal in support of a containment regime to reduce emissions of fluorinated gases across Europe". 

"We are keen to demonstrate that with this Regulation we can achieve real emission reductions in the refrigeration and air-conditioning sector in the coming years," said Friedrich Busch, Director General of EPEE. In addition, EPEE noted with satisfaction that "yesterday’s compromise prohibits the introduction of new measures from 2005" and that "existing national measures will cease to apply after 2012".

EU climate and energy policy director at Greenpeace, Mahi Sideridou, told EurActiv that the Austrians and Danes have "a lot to celebrate". "We welcome the reduction [in greenhouse gas emissions] that the bill will create," she says. But she regrets that the compromise misses out on the much greater reduction potential that the bill initially offered. "It is mostly a failure from the Commission", says Sideridou who believes the EU executive caved in to pressure from chemicals producers such as Dupont and Solvay. She points out that most European refrigeration manufacturers have already shifted to hydrocarbons because they are cheaper, more energy efficient and unprotected by patents.

Next steps: 
  • 31 December 2008: deadline for the Commission to present possible further proposals relating to air conditioning and refrigeration systems
  • 31 December 2012: legal force of stricter national measures runs out
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Background: 

Fluorinated gases (hydrofluorocarbons or HFCs, perfluorocarbons or PFCs and sulphur hexafluoride or SF6) were introduced in the nineties to replace CFCs and HCFCs, as those substances were blamed for depleting the earth's ozone layer. 

HFCs, PFCs and SF6 are three of the six gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. F-gases represent only about 2% of EU-15 emissions of all greenhouse gases, including CO2. However, the Commission estimates their global warming potential (GWP) to be as much as "23,900 times that of carbon dioxide (CO2)" in the case of SF6. 

If no action is taken, emissions of F-gases in the EU-15 are expected to grow dramatically, "from 65.2 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 1995 to 98 million tonnes in 2010", according to the Commission.

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