MEPs reject ban of HFCs

The rejection comes after an earlier vote by the Parliament’s environment committee which backed changes to the F-Gas proposals, including the phasing-out of HFCs in commercial refrigeration and stationary air conditioning products by 2010.

However, at the European Parliament Plenary session that took place in late October, MEPs voted not to adopt the changes. The F-Gas Regulation – which aims to minimise emissions of fluorinated gases – will now pass to the Council of Ministers, without the proposed amendments, for approval and possible implementation throughout the member states from next year.

According to Neil Afram, president of HEVAC, the amendments would have represented a significant departure from the principal objectives of the F-Gas regulation, which is based on containment of a range of global warming gases, not a phase-out. “The direct and indirect costs that would have been involved as a consequence of any premature phase-out of HFCs would have been catastrophic for the European economy, and there would have been no benefit in environmental terms.”

MEPS also voted to reject the environmental committee’s amendments to change from a dual legal base to a single legal base. This would effectively have allowed individual EU nations to adopt stricter legislation to reduce F-gas emissions than required under EU law, potentially forcing manufacturers to have to adopt different legislation as they sell their products across the EU.