Tag: HFC

The German car company, Daimler, is facing potential infringement proceedings from Brussels after announcing an intention to defy EU legislation and continue using a super greenhouse gas in its car air conditioning systems next year.

The European Commission has drawn up a plan to outlaw planet-warming hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in domestic refrigerators and freezers by 2015, and commercial coolers by 2020, under a draft regulation seen by EurActiv.

Planet-warming gases used to power Europe's refrigerators and air conditioning should be banned or face a weighting system based on their global warming potential, a consultants' report to the EU says.

The European Commission yesterday (25 November) presented plans to ban the use of controversial international offset credits from certain industrial gas projects in the EU's cap-and-trade system after 2012.

EU lawmakers in January 2006 struck an agreement on a proposal to cut down emissions of fluorinated gases as part of the Kyoto protocol on climate change. F-gases are widely used in refrigeration and air conditioning but have a high global warming potential and can sometimes stay in the atmosphere for thousands of years. The agreement mainly seeks to improve the containment and recovery of F-gases and imposes regular checks on industrial refrigeration installations. After much discussion, the compromise allows countries like Denmark and Austria to maintain stricter controls than elsewhere in Europe until 2012. A phase-out of HFC-134a in car air conditioning has also been approved as of 2011 with a complete ban applying from 2017.

The 'F-gas team' at the Commission's DG environment was rewarded for the open way in which it handled the phase out of greenhouse gases in cars' air conditioning systems.

The ban on fluorinated gases (F-gases) proposed by the Parliament's environment committee has left industry concerned and NGOs only mildly happy.