The ban on fluorinated gases (F-gases) proposed by the Parliament’s environment committee has left industry concerned and NGOs only mildly happy.
The Parliament’s environment committee voted on 15 March
(co-decision, first reading) in favour of the
Goodwill reporton
the reduction of F-gases emissions. The main issues in the vote
were:
-
Mobile Air Conditioning (MAC): MEPs backed a total
ban of F-gases (HFC-134a) on all new car’s air conditioning systems
as of 2014, with a phase-out period starting from 2009. Air
conditioning in cars was one the most heavily disputed issues in
the F-gases regulation dossier. Producers contended that there was
no ready alternative to HFC-134a and called the proposed ban
inappropriate (see
EURACTIV, 17 February
2004). MEPs supported the view that HFC-152a
provided such an alternative and hence voted for it to be excluded
from the ban. They also tightened the proposal by lowering the ban
threshold of F-gases from 150 to 50 in terms of global warming
potential. -
Legal base: The Committee voted to base the
regulation jointly on the internal market (article 95) and
environment (article 175) provisions of the EC Treaty. The
Commission’s orginal intention was to base the proposal on the
internal market only so as to harmonise legislation throughout the
EU. With the environment as a second legal base, Member States
could adopt stricter rules of their own, therefore challenging this
objective. -
Containment: The issue of F-gases containment –
preventing gas leakages into the atmosphere from appliances such as
refrigerators – had been raised by environmental NGOs before the
vote. A
studypublished
in February by Climate Action Network said that the containment
strategy of the refrigeration and air-conditioning industry had
failed to reduce leakages. The study was immediately contested by
industry which pointed out the inaccuracy of the study. Under the
proposed new rules, the containment strategy is kept for most fixed
appliances (air conditioning systems, refrigerators, foams) while
the ban is maintained for other industrial production techniques
(SF6 in magnesium die-casting).