Fluorocarbon producers join the Mobile Air Conditioning Climate Protection Partnership

On June 29, 2004, the fluorocarbon producers Atofina, DuPont, INEOS Fluor, Honeywell, Solvay and the JFMA, announced that they will provide 300 000 US dollars to help fund the Mobile Air Conditioning Climate Protection Partnership, which includes government, academic and other scientific institutions, such as environmental advocacy organizations as well as corporate partners from the industry. This partnership has agreed on an ambitious programme seeking to increase energy efficiency and dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicle air-conditioning systems. The programme, announced at the Mobile Air-Conditioning Summit in Washington on April 15, 2004, aims to reduce fuel consumption from the operation of air conditioning in vehicles by 30% and halve direct refrigerant emissions. According to this programme, the cumulative reduction in fuel use and containment of refrigerants will avoid more than 35 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gas emissions each year. Over time, over 300 million vehicles could benefit from this programme and, when all cars will have this technology, it is estimated that 11 billion litres of fuel worldwide could be saved each year.