Support the deployment of alternative refrigerants with low or no global warming potential in heat pumps and air conditioning systems

New heating and cooling technologies can eliminate the need for harmful refrigerants, such as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) which are used in heat pumps to extract air from outside and concentrate it inside for indoor heating. They can also be used in reverse to cool air and act as an air conditioner. While heat pumps are more efficient and less emissions-intensive than traditional heating systems, the hydrofluorocarbons they use often leak and can have global warming potential over 3,000 times more potent than that of carbon dioxide. As a result, there is a need to support the deployment of alternative refrigerants with low or no global warming potential, such as hydrofluorolefins, ammonia and propane, in heat pumps and air conditioning systems.

Climate treaties and government mandates are already playing a role. The Montreal Protocol, ratified in 1988, is an international agreement to protect the ozone later by phasing out ozone-depleting substance. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and halons, among other refrigerants, are all considered ozone-depleting substances and were essentially banned at the time of the Protocol. However, HFCs continued to be used for heating and cooling. In 2016, signatories of the Protocol adopted the Kigali Amendment, which added the phaseout of HFCs to the Protocol. While the Amendment did not ban HFCs, it helped create demand certainty and interest in alternatives with lower carbon footprints. Since the ratification of the Kigali Amendment, several governments have set timelines to enforce HFC reduction mandates.

Heating is not the only energy-guzzling component of buildings. Air conditioners account for 4% of annual global emissions, resulting mostly from the indirect emissions associated with electricity generation required to power the air-conditioning system and remove the humidity from the air. Harmful refrigerants described above also contribute 37% of the global emissions associated with cooling. The total share of emissions from cooling systems is expected to increase as temperatures and humidity rise around the globe, and as access to air conditioning systems becomes more commonplace. One study predicts the absolute emissions of cooling will increase five times from 2016 to 2050. Therefore, policymakers must accelerate the development of high-efficiency air conditioning systems, to reduce emissions from the dehumidifying and cooling process, and from the refrigerants. Governments can regulate which refrigerants can be used in air conditioners as well as enact efficiency standards for cooling in new buildings to combat the circulation of the more energy-intensive units. They can also direct funding to research and development programs for more efficient cooling technologies.