HFC gases present a major threat to global efforts to combat climate change

Wednesday, 24 June 2009 00:00

A new scientific paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), highlights the need for urgent action over a group of gases known as Hydroflurocarbons (HFCs) as part of the climate change agenda. These gases are increasingly used in insulation foam, air-conditioning and refrigeration, and they present a significant threat to global efforts to stabilize climate change. The new study was welcomed on Monday 22nd of June by the head of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

According to a news release issued by UNEP, if HFC growth continues unchecked, by 2050 the amount of gas produced could total nine Giga tons, or the equivalent of 45 per cent of total CO2 emissions. Conversely, rapid action to freeze and to cut emissions annually alongside fostering readily available alternatives could see HFC emissions fall to under one Giga ton in the same period, the recently released paper argues.

“By some estimates, action to freeze and then reduce this group of gases (HFCs) could buy the world the equivalent of a decades-worth of C02 emissions,” said Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director. Mr. Steiner stressed that cutting carbon dioxide emissions is the key to accelerating a transition to a low carbon, resource efficient ‘green economy.’ “It is also central to delivering a stabilization of the atmosphere as outlined by the assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),” he further added.

The projected growth in production and consumption of HFCs is in part linked with the success of the UNEP-administered Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer. Since the late 1980s, the treaty has successfully phased-out 97 per cent of such substances. In 2007, a scientific paper calculated the climate mitigation benefits of the ozone treaty as totaling an equivalent of 135 billion tonnes of C02 since 1990 or a delay in global warming of seven to 12 years. In that same year, countries met in Canada, under the Montreal Protocol, and agreed to an accelerated freeze and phase-out of Hydrochloroflurocarbons (HCFCs), which are chemicals designed to replace the old, more ozone-damaging CFCs.

The new research findings in the PNAS indicate that unless urgent measures are taken to restrict HFCs, countries and companies are likely to pick this group of gases to replace HCFCs in products such as air conditioning units, refrigeration and insulating foams.

Read the study “The large contribution of projected HFC emissions to future climate forcing” online.

Source: UNEP News 22.6.2009, UN News 22.6.2009