November 2022: Four European organisations promoting the wider uptake of natural refrigerants - Refrigerants, Naturally!, the Clean Cooling Coalition, the Royal Dutch Association of Refrigeration (KNVvK) and STEK (Emission Prevention Refrigeration Technology Foundation) – released a statement at the ATMOsphere (ATMO) Europe Summit in Brussels asking national and EU authorities to maintain ambitious goals in the ultimate revision of the EU F-Gas regulation. Since then, 30 companies from the RACHP sector have signed this statement (1).
“Our companies’ business is aligned with the objectives of REPowerEU and the EU Chemical Strategy for Sustainability,” the statement says, adding, “There is no ‘conflict’ between a phase-down of halogenated chemicals and the objectives of REPower EU, in particular those related to heat pumps. In fact, manufacturers are already investing “at large scale” in R&D and production capacities for environmentally friendly equipment without f-gases and other halogenated chemicals”.
The companies and organisations support the overall direction of the Commission proposal for the new EU F-gas Regulation, the amendments of the European Parliament and the work related to PFAS.
A similar statement signed by twenty-two mostly Germany-based companies claims that the proposed revision of the EU F-Gas Regulation can be “implemented without any problems” given the availability of natural refrigerant-based systems that have been tried and tested for decades. The statement has already been sent to Robert Habeck, Germany’s Vice Chancellor and Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action; and Steffi Lemke, Germany’s Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection, according to Professor Michael Kauffeld (Director, Steinbeis-Transferzentrum Kälte- und Klimatechnik), one of the signees of the statement (2).
Both initiatives cooperate to communicate the clear message to decision makers at respective upcoming events.
Interested companies can join either statement by sending a signed version to: info@cleancoolingcoalition.eu or info@refrigerantsnaturally.org.
Download the statements here:
