PartagerRéglement F-gaz de l'UE: Consultation Forum
Au cours de la première réunion du "Consultation Forum" présidé par la DG Action pour le Climat de la Commission Européenne en septembre 2015, la discussion a porté sur les obstacles à l'adoption des alternatives aux HFC à faible GWP.
During the first meeting of the Consultation Forum chaired by European Commission Directorate-General Climate Action on 10 September 2015, based on a study by Ricardo-AEA and Gluckman Consulting carried out for DG Climate Action, the barriers to the uptake of low GWP alternatives to HFCs were discussed. The IIR participated in this meeting.
. This study stresses that various standards and legislations both at EU and Member State level can create barriers to the usage of low GWP alternatives to HFCs.
It concludes that for ammonia and CO2, there are no unreasonable barriers.
However, for hydrocarbons (“higher flammability” A3 refrigerants), current standards create significant barriers; some national legislation (e.g. in Italy) simply ban the use of HCs, while some EU standards limit the amount of hydrocarbon charge to a conservatively low level.
For A2L “lower flammability” fluids (e.g. HFOs and HFC-32), current standards also create significant barriers.
There is insufficient recognition of the lower flammability status in some national legislation and the charge limits set by some EU standards may be unnecessarily conservative.
With most barriers at an EU level, overcoming them might require some deliberation as to changing certain EU standards.
. A Member State survey shows a total of 160,000 technicians hold an F-Gas refrigerant handling in 21 countries and about 200,000 in the whole EU, allowing for non-respondents.
However, there is a significant lack of engineers holding appropriate training for non-HFC alternative refrigerants. Despite the availability of training materials (e.g. via REAL Alternatives programme), the uptake of training for low GWP alternatives remains very low, especially for CO2, hydrocarbons and A2L refrigerants.
Unless major efforts undertaken to create greater availability, lack of training could become a significant barrier.
. This study stresses that various standards and legislations both at EU and Member State level can create barriers to the usage of low GWP alternatives to HFCs.
It concludes that for ammonia and CO2, there are no unreasonable barriers.
However, for hydrocarbons (“higher flammability” A3 refrigerants), current standards create significant barriers; some national legislation (e.g. in Italy) simply ban the use of HCs, while some EU standards limit the amount of hydrocarbon charge to a conservatively low level.
For A2L “lower flammability” fluids (e.g. HFOs and HFC-32), current standards also create significant barriers.
There is insufficient recognition of the lower flammability status in some national legislation and the charge limits set by some EU standards may be unnecessarily conservative.
With most barriers at an EU level, overcoming them might require some deliberation as to changing certain EU standards.
. A Member State survey shows a total of 160,000 technicians hold an F-Gas refrigerant handling in 21 countries and about 200,000 in the whole EU, allowing for non-respondents.
However, there is a significant lack of engineers holding appropriate training for non-HFC alternative refrigerants. Despite the availability of training materials (e.g. via REAL Alternatives programme), the uptake of training for low GWP alternatives remains very low, especially for CO2, hydrocarbons and A2L refrigerants.
Unless major efforts undertaken to create greater availability, lack of training could become a significant barrier.