The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed new rules that will hasten the transition away from super-polluting hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) to climate-friendlier alternatives in refrigeration, air conditioners, heat pumps, insulation and aerosols.
Under the proposed EPA rules refrigerants such as R134a, R404A and R410A will be banned in most refrigeration and air conditioning applications from 2025.
The rules also include a 700 GWP limit on chillers and residential and light commercial air conditioning and heat pump systems from 1 January, 2025.
Retail food refrigeration systems would be limited to a GWP of 300 with some product sectors, such as stand-alone units and supermarket systems with refrigerant charges of 200lb (91kg) or more, limited to GWPs of 150 from 2025.
A senior advocate in the Climate & Clean Energy and International programs at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), Alex Hillbrand, welcomed moves by the EPA to speed up the transition from powerful climate-warming HFCs to next generation alternatives in dozens of products that consumers and businesses buy, from aerosol cans to air conditioners and heat pumps.
“It’s a win-win: climate-warming emissions will fall significantly, and consumers will get better, money-saving products,” he said.
The EPA’s action builds on petitions filed last year by NRDC and others calling for specific bans on products using HFCs. The petitions called for the agency to use authority Congress granted in the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act, enacted in December 2020, to shift appliances and other key products away from HFCs. Pound for pound, HFCs warm the climate hundreds to thousands of times more than carbon dioxide.
The EPA proposal covers a wide range of products and processes where climate-friendlier alternatives are available. Under the new rule, products will be redesigned by 2025 or 2026 to use HFC-free alternatives or less damaging HFCs.
These rules to move products away from HFCs will supplement the phase down of overall HFC supply under the AIM Act.
The move goes beyond what the law's phasedown schedule requires, avoiding additional HFC emissions equivalent to 134-903 million tonnes of carbon dioxide and saving consumers and industry an extra $5.8 billion through 2050.
The AIM Act requires the EPA to phase down HFC production and import 85 per cent over the next 15 years and to ban HFC uses that have ready alternatives. It also calls on EPA to issue regulations on management and handling of HFCs meant to limit their emissions and promote their reclamation and reuse.