Time for a More Climate-friendly Mobile Air-Conditioning Refrigerant?

Posted on October 15, 2008 by Frederick R. Anderson

If Ben and Jerry’s can do it for their ice cream freezers, it is time for the world’s auto manufacturers to select a mobile air conditioning refrigerant that will achieve greater global climate protection benefits. At the present time, all passenger vehicles and light trucks’ air conditioning systems worldwide use HFC-134a, the greener hydrofluorocarbon refrigerant that replaced the ozone-depleting CFC-12 that was phased out years ago under the Montreal Protocol. Yet while HFC-134a may solve the ozone depletion problem for mobile refrigerants, its global warming potential is an unacceptable 1,430 times greater than that of CO2. It is time to move on to a more climate-friendly refrigerant. The choices are (ironically) a CO2-based system, HFC-152a, or what many feel is the clear best choice, HFC-1234yf, which has the best overall profile for getting the job done efficiently with fewer technical, environmental, and safety concerns. Quantified benefits over a twenty year period might possibly go beyond $200 billion and avoid almost 200 million metric tons of carbon-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions. That's $10 billion a year and 10 billion metric tons of carbon-equivalent emissions a year avoided.

Continue Reading...
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Black Carbon Steps from the Shadows as a Major Climate Culprit Worldwide

Posted on October 9, 2008 by Frederick R. Anderson

You may have recently heard about “black carbon” and wondered if it was a climate epithet, a word reversal in a familiar product (carbon black), or simply redundant (carbon is black). But in fact “black” or elemental carbon is emerging as a particularly potent greenhouse agent that needs to be reckoned with on its own terms with special measures to prevent releases to the atmosphere. Recent studies suggest that black carbon emissions, which are not yet controlled by the Kyoto or Montreal Protocols, are the second largest contributor to global warming (after carbon dioxide) and that reducing them may be the fastest strategy for slowing climate change. Black carbon emissions are greatest from developing countries, a trend which is expected to increase, but the US and other developed nations can also do much more to address the problem. Reducing black carbon emissions offers a nearly instant return in lowering the greenhouse effect, because black carbon particles remain airborne for weeks while carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for more than a century (see footnote 24 of IGSD October 2008 Climate Briefing).

Continue Reading...
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

The Montreal Protocol Out-Kyotos Kyoto

Posted on October 6, 2008 by Frederick R. Anderson

The Montreal Protocol, the “ozone layer treaty” that was so effective in protecting the earth from ultraviolet radiation, has proved thus far to be more effective -- dramatically more effective -- than the Kyoto Protocol in protecting the earth's climate from global warming. It already has tangible greenhouse gas emissions reductions commitments that rival even the goals of Kyoto's entire first commitment period. These are equal to the greenhouse emissions from 70 million US households for 30 years, according to EPA. This real-world success thus far has not been fully appreciated. If we took Montreal even more seriously, additional and immediate climate gains are possible to curb releases of the ozone-depleting greenhouse gases (ODGHGs) contained in refrigeration equipment and thermal insulating foam, including both chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that Montreal largely removed from cosmetic aerosol products, and their substitutes, the hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) that may be many times more potent than carbon dioxide in warming the earth. The HCFCs targeted in the accelerated, Montreal-based phase-out can be 2,000 times more potent in contributing to climate change than CO2.

Continue Reading...
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,