The F-gas team at the Commission's environment DG has received
on 13 April the 2004 "Climate Protection Award" of the US
Environment Protection Agency (EPA) in Washington DC.

Matti Vainio, Damien Meadows and Phil Callaghan were rewarded
for their "exceptional leadership, personnal dedication and
technical achievements in protecting the Earth's climate". The team
received the award because of the "elegant" way they dealt with the
proposal by openly sharing its goals and solliciting the advice of
American, Japanese and other stakeholder experts on how to regulate
HFC-134a emissions from vehicle air conditioners.

There are ten other winners to the prize including corporations,
governements, individuals and organisations. The

EPAis a government body which
develops and enforces environment legislation in the US. It also
deals with environmental science, research, education and
assessment efforts.

The EU regulation on F-gases was adopted by Parliament on 31
March 2004 and is scheduled to be endorsed by the environment
Council on 28-29 June (see

EURACTIV, 1 April
2004)