US to eliminate 85% of super polluting gas emissions used in air conditioners and refrigerators

The United States will reduce by 85% over the next 15 years its emissions of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), super polluting gases responsible for global warming and used in air conditioning and refrigeration systems, according to a commitment that the government will announce this Thursday.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be responsible for announcing new regulations for these greenhouse gases, which can be more dangerous than carbon dioxide. There is broad bipartisan support for tackling these super pollutants.

The goal, as detailed by the White House in a conversation with reporters, is that with 85% less emissions, by 2050 the equivalent of more than 4.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide will have been reduced.

This amount is equal three years of broadcasts of the energy sector at 2019 levels.

“It is a victory for the climate and for the jobs and competitiveness of the United States “, noted Gina McCarthy, the White House’s national climate coordinator, during a briefing Wednesday evening. “This is really – frankly people – a good deal,” he said.

The EPA will set a cap on hydrofluorocarbons until 2023, granting rights to companies that manufacture or import them over the next two years. The agency will further reduce its use until 2036 with additional regulations, according to information from The Washington Post.

Avipsa Mahapatra, climate campaign chief for the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a non-governmental rights group, praised regulators for addressing what he called “The most potent super pollutants known to mankind at this time”.

Hydrofluorocarbons were once an environmental solution. They replaced other chemicals that, when released into the atmosphere, eroded the Earth’s protective ozone layer. But its heat-trapping properties have continued to exacerbate global warming., which is why, in 2016, world leaders signed the Kigali Amendment, an update of the Montreal Protocol of 1987, to fight against these super pollutants.

Washington will thus ratify the objectives of the amendment to protect the ozone layer.

The law is the result of successful negotiations between Democratic and Republican allies interested in reducing greenhouse gases and chemical manufacturers eager to sell alternative refrigerants. EPA chief Michael Regan called the bipartisan law “one of the most important environmental laws in recent history.”, según The Washington Post.

If the reduction of these HFC gases occurs globally in accordance with the objectives of the Kigali Amendment, the experts point out that Global warming could be slowed by 0.5 degrees Celsius by 2100.

In the hydrofluorocarbon reduction regulations that the EPA will release this Thursday, a plan is also designed to prevent the illegal import and production of these gases and another to develop alternatives.

(With information from EFE)

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