Chilling effect of EU regulations

A new regulation to ban the use of a potent greenhouse gas in fridges and air conditioning is in the pipeline from the EU.

The European Commission is drafting legislation which will most likely ban the use of F-gases in new equipment from 2015 to help meet global warming targets.

F-gases, otherwise known as hydrofluorocarbons or HFCs, are up to 23,000 times as powerful as CO2.

Speaking at the 2012 Atmosphere conference in Brussels, Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said the proposals would only apply to new equipment. She said there are already plenty of alternatives that are “technically feasible, safe, equally or more energy efficient and affordable.”

Sectors affected

The new regulations will be based on a report by refrigeration technology expert Prof. Michael Kauffeld. It says the phasing out of F-gases by 2020 is possible in the following sectors:

domestic refrigeration (already possible by 2015)
commercial refrigeration: centralised systems, condensing units or stand-alone equipment
transport refrigeration: vans
stationary air conditioning (AC) and heat pumps: moveable type AC, single split type AC, multi-split AC (with few exemptions), ducted rooftop, displacement chillers, heating only heat pumps
mobile AC: cargo ship, bus (with few exemptions), truck (with few exemptions)
foams (already possible by 2015): XPS foam HFC-134a, XPS foam HFC-152a, spray foam, other PU foam
aerosols (with few exemptions)
fire protection HFC23 (already possible by 2015).

Phase out

The report says: “The low-GWP technology that is most appropriate will depend on a number of factors including the local economic and regulatory situation, as well as climatic and other factors. Nonetheless the evidence is clear that the use of HFCs can be phased out in the majority of sectors by 2020, with safe, affordable and energy efficient alternatives.”

Mrs Hedegard is adamant that if the EU leads on this issue the rest of the world will follow. She said she will be pressing other nations to phase out the use of F-gases at a meeting to discuss the Montreal Protocol in Geneva this month.