Brussels, 08/11/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Partnership for Energy and Environment (EPEE), which represents the interests of the industry for heating and cooling, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration in Europe, welcomes the initiative taken on Wednesday 7 November by the European Commission with a view to strengthening the existing F-Gas regulation, without imposing the same solution on all applications (see EUROPE 10725).
EPEE fully backs the Commission's pledge to introduce the phasing out of HFCs combined with a further strengthening of the existing F-Gas regulation by, for example, including the sector of transport refrigeration as, in EPEE's view, this will push the heating and refrigeration industry to move towards elimination of HFCs whenever feasible from a health and safety, energy efficiency, technological and economic perspective. Andrea Voigt, Director General EPEE, said: “If we are serious about reducing emissions, then we need a measure that leaves the choice open for selecting the best solutions for each and every application, everywhere in Europe. There is no perfect refrigerant! With this in mind, we fully support the Commission's intentions to gradually phase-down HFCs”.
On the basis of a study conducted by SKM Enviros, EPEE considers that a cap and phase-down mechanism of 30% in 2020 and up to 65% in 2030 will achieve the EU's climate objective and the required emission reductions of 70 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent required for the sector by 2030 within the framework of the low carbon roadmap until 2050. Like the Commission, EPEE considers that gradual elimination of HFCs is the most effective measure for reducing emissions at least cost (from €15-25 per tonne of CO2 less, with significant variations according to the application). What EPEE does fear is the ban on HFCs in all commercial and industrial refrigeration installations of over 100KW as of 2020, a ban on HFCs in pre-charged refrigeration equipment as of 2017 and a ban on pre-charged mobile air conditioning equipment as of 2020. The new draft regulation only provides for a ban on HFCs in certain new pieces of equipment such as refrigerators and household freezers between now and 2015 and in commercial refrigerators by 2020 when alternative, viable environmentally-friendly solutions that will not adversely affect the climate are already available. (AN/transl.jl)