The decision underlines the fact that action by both member states and the European Community needs to be reinforced if the EU is to succeed in cutting its greenhouse gas emissions to 8 per cent below 1990 levels by 2008-2012, as required by the Kyoto agreement.
"The legislation agreed today is another element in the framework we are building to curb climate change and to implement the Kyoto Protocol," said environment commissioner Margot Wallström.
"It is an important element because fluorinated gases (F-gases) have huge global warming potential - in some cases almost 24,000 times that of carbon dioxide. By agreeing on this legislation, Member States have once again taken concrete action to fight climate change."
The fluorinated gases (F-gases) covered are hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6). By volume, F-gases currently account for 2 per cent of total EU greenhouse gas emissions. These gases are often used in industrial freezing and refrigeration.
However, their global warming potential is high and many of them have long atmospheric lifetimes. For example, SF6 has a global warming potential that is 23,900 times that of carbon dioxide (CO2), which is the most common greenhouse gas.
The food industry has already anticipated this trend away from F-gases. Unilever's ice cream division for example claims that it is committed to buying only HFC-free freezers from 2005. The freezers have already been introduced in Denmark, Greece, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the UK, and the company claims it will have around 15,000 HFC-free cabinets in its fleet by the end of 2004.
The new freezers use hydrocarbon propane as refrigerant, and do not contribute to global warming as HFCs do.
The European Council agreement shows how committed the bloc is to reducing the usage of F-gases in refrigeration and food production. If no measures were taken, the Commission estimates that emissions of fluorinated gases would increase from the equivalent of 65.2 million tonnes of CO2 in 1995 to the equivalent of 98 million tonnes in 2010.
But with the measures agreed today, they will be reduced by more than the equivalent of 20 million tonnes of CO2 per year until 2012, and when the legislation is fully implemented, by the equivalent of 40-50 million tonnes of CO2 each year.
However, these figures only take into account the EU15, and discount the New Member states.
Nonetheless, the new regulations also intend to strengthen the monitoring and reporting of F-gas emissions, and introduce labelling of products and equipment. An EU-wide minimum standard for training and certification of personnel is to be set up.
Where containment is not feasible or the use of certain fluorinated gases is inappropriate, such as self-chilling beverage cans, marketing and use will be banned.
The final adoption of these regulations, following a second reading in the European Parliament and formal adoption by the Council, is expected towards the end of next year. Member States will then have 18 months to transpose the directive, while the regulation will enter into force unchanged and immediately after publication in the Official Journal.
The food industry is coming under consistent pressure to establish environmentally friendly principles, from both pressure groups and legislators. The EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is another policy being introduced across Europe to tackle emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases and combat the serious threat of climate change. This scheme comes into force on 1 January 2005.