GREENHOUSE GASES DUE TO AIRCONDITIONING

Gas that saved ozone layer making world warmer

Research Shows Replacements Of Ozone-Destroying CFCs Are Powerful Greenhouse Gases


The green movements greatest triumph the abolition of ozone-destroying CFC gases in the 1980s may become its biggest embarrassment after research showing that their replacements are sharply accelerating global warming.
CFC, or chlorofluorocarbon , gases were widely deployed in air-conditioning and refrigeration units before they were found to destroy the ozone layer and banned under the 1987 Montreal Protocol. They were replaced by HFCs hydrofluorocarbons gases which have far less effect on ozone but which have since been revealed as extremely powerful greenhouse gases. A tonne of HFC-23 used in refrigeration has the same global warming potential as 14,800 tonnes of CO2. A tonne of HFC-134 a, widely used in vehicle air-conditioning units, is equivalent to 1,430 tonnes of CO2. The problem has been increased by the rising demand for refrigeration and air-conditioning because of economic expansion and population growth in Asia.
A study out this week will warn that, by 2050, HFCs could account for up to 19% of global warming. By 2050, the contribution of HFCs to global warming will be more than that of current global CO2 emissions from houses and office buildings, said Guus Velders of the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, who did the research.
The contribution of HFCs to global warming is currently small, but can increase to between 9% and 19% of the total CO2 contribution by 2050.
He found that by 2050 the demand for HFCs was likely to have increased by 800% compared with todays figures.
A separate study conducted by the Environmental Investigation Agency, a campaign group, found the biggest source of HFC emissions was air-conditioning in vehicles.