Europe's flourocarbons industry welcomes EU reduction plans
last week's decision by the EU to reduce fluorinated gases, but has
sounded a note of caution.
"EFCTC, and the industries that rely on F-gases, support the principle of an EU regulation on Fluorinated gases that controls emissions and concentrates on containment, monitoring and reporting," said Dr Nick Campbell, chairman of EFCTC, the organisation that represents businesses involved in the development and manufacture of equipment that relies on HFCs as a refrigerant.
"The political agreement combines ambitious environmental objectiveswithout unfounded restrictions, that would be detrimental not only to the European economy but also to health, safety and to the overall reduction of greenhouse gas emissions."
"The EFCTC believes that the rejection by the council of the proposed extension to the list of applications, restricting the use of fluorinated gases, acknowledges that only uses in which emissions cannot be controlled, that are not considered to be vital to society should be banned.
However, the association did sound a note of caution.
"We are concerned that the council agreed to phase out the use of HFC-134a in mobile air-conditioning systems, when alternatives are still in the development phase and no mass-produced commercial system, that provides demonstrable economic, safety and environmental benefits is yet available,"said Campbell.
Nonetheless, EFCTC considers that the decision to adopt a dual legal base (Article 95, covering placing of products on the market and Article 175, covering the environmental aspects) is a reasonable compromise. The committee believes that this should enable the regulation to reach its environmental goals while promoting the free movement of goods and services throughout the community.
In addition, EFCTC is confident that there is sufficient evidence that containment is feasible and already a reality in many cases through technological improvement, monitoring of installations and training of qualified personnel.
Fluorinated industrial gases (Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), Perfluorinated Carbons (PFCs) and Sulphur Hexafluoride (SF6)) are widely used in food manufacturing applications such as refrigeration. The gases are fluorinated to confer on them distinct environmental and safety benefits. They do not deplete the ozone layer because they contain no chlorine.
EFCTC argues that fluorinated gases (F-gases), in particular HFCs, have contributed widely to the success of the Montreal Protocol in protecting the ozone layer.
However, the high Global Warming Potential (GWP) of these gases has raised environmental concerns and the three gases were therefore included in the basket of six greenhouse gases identified in the Kyoto Protocol, together with carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O).
Fluorinated gases currently contribute less than 2 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union. They are forecasted to remain at less than 3 per cent by 2010.
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.
Following this political agreement by the Environment Council, EFCTC has called on the European Parliament to come to a second reading agreement with the Council and thereby allow the regulation to pass into European law in the shortest possible time.
