France: Assessment of the refrigerant emissions avoided between 1993 and 2013

The commitment and engagement from most stakeholders in the “Cooling and Air Conditioning “ branch helped avoid 45 million emitted tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
At the initiative of the “Association des distributeurs, conditionneurs, récupérateurs et retraiteurs de réfrigérants “ (ADC3R) and as part of a research initiative, the Chaire économie du climat (Climate Economics Chair), together with the CITEPA (Centre Interprofessionnel Technique d'Etudes de la Pollution Atmosphérique/Interprofessional Technical Centre for Studies on Air Pollution), seeked to undertake an environmental and economic assessment on the benefits of these recovery actions in terms of greenhouse gas emissions reduction.

From an environmental point of view:

After a 22-year proactive and responsible approach designed to reduce and control the fluorinated greenhouse gases, the “Cooling and Air Conditioning “ branch is presenting the conclusions of one of the first circular economies: The commitment and engagement from most stakeholders helped avoid 45 million emitted tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
According to ADC3R, very few branches are in a position to claim such a success as well as an environmental efficiency equal to French vehicle fleet yearly emissions.

The innovative approach helped implement sustainable solutions including an efficient collection, analysis, recycling and regeneration system via tailored actions such as supplying and collecting packaging for the chain stakeholders; recycling and regeneration enable to reuse the fluorinated greenhouse gases within the same application (“circular economy”).
Nowadays, stakeholders confirm that they wish to improve and reinforce their commitment in reducing the fluorinated greenhouse gases emissions throughout the logistics chain by leveraging off good practices and promoting the transition to low-GWP alternatives with the aim of avoiding 68 million emitted tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030.

To do so, they mean to support the cold chain stakeholders towards replacing and switching to low-GWP alternatives, continue improving the waste fluorinated greenhouse gases collection and regeneration, help control and reduce the fluorinated greenhouse gases emissions throughout the chain. These actions go beyond the current regulation in line with the COP21 voluntary commitment and will allow the branch to go further in controlling CO2 emissions.

From an economical point of view:

The Chaire économie du climat (Climate Economics Chair) has been investigating the economic benefit of such emission economies for society. It resorted to the so-called “shadow pricing” of emitted carbon dioxide, i.e. the value that public authorities advise to use in estimations designed to assist public decision-making.

The most recent estimation of this “carbon shadow pricing” is based on the Strategical Analysis Council work released in 2008 and required by the Prime Minister. The commission advocated:
-    maintaining a 100 €/tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent value in 2030
-    updating this value in line with the discount rate – set at 4%/per year since the work of Lebègue Commission in 2005.

This resulted in a price of approximately 45 €/tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2010 updated to 55,5 €/tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2015.
Given all these assumptions, the economic value of greenhouse gases emission reductions for the community, achieved between 1993 and 2013, can be evaluated to 2.4 billion euros roughly.

Source: Association ADC3R