Markets and figures: Australia

According to EcoLibrium, no less than 29 million air-conditioning and refrigeration devices are used in Australia, which represents 1.33 devices per inhabitant and 45@000 GWh of electricity, i.e. 22% of national consumption; 40 Mt CO2e are emitted indirectly and 4.5 Mt CO2e are released directly through refrigerant leaks, which overall represents 7% of the countryfs greenhouse gas emissions. Supermarkets are the largest emitters in the refrigeration sector due to significant refrigerant leak rates and account for up to 4% of national electricity usage. Because of these leaks, the compressor of a refrigeration plant has to run longer to achieve the pull-down of temperature, which means more indirect greenhouse gas emissions. The more leaks, the less efficient is the plant. As 1300 g of CO2 are necessary to produce 1 kWh of electricity in Victoria and less in other states, a 700 kWr refrigeration running 10% less efficiently than it should, 12 hours per day, would emit in excess of 1.338 tons of CO2 annually.