AVERAGE GWP CONTINUES TO FALL AND EU HFC EMISSIONS DECREASE

The average GWP of HFCs/HFOs placed on the EU market has decreased by about 23% since the phase-out of HCFCs at the end 2009 and has fallen every year since then, with a steeper decline following the 2014 F-Gas Regulation (see chart). The increasing use of extremely low GWP HFOs (and HCFOs) has contributed to this reduction and in 2017 these accounted for about 13% of the total HFCs/HFOs by weight placed on the EU market, a significant increase from about 1% in 2014. The HFOs and HCFOs are being used alone and in blends with HFCs in a range of applications including mobile air-conditioning, refrigeration, stationary air-conditioning and heat pumps, foams and technical aerosols.

Data sources: HCFC data in ODP tonnes (assumes all HCFC-22) Ozone Unep Data reporting; HFC/HFO data EEA Report No 21/2018, THAL18 014 EN N Fluorinated greenhouse gases 2018 1.

The European Environment Agency reported that following 13 years of increases in EU emissions of fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-gases) reported under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), 2015 was the first year to see a decrease in emissions of HFCs (and all F-Gases). The emissions data submitted to the UNFCCC for 2016 also reports a small decline compared to 2015. The UNFCCC submission for 2017 is not yet available, but the EEA Approximated EU GHG inventory: proxy GHG estimates for 2017 reported a small reduction (-0.8%) in emissions for products used as substitutes for ODS [mainly HFCs] for the EU plus Iceland. The chart shows the trend in reported HFC emissions, and also as a percentage of total EU greenhouse gas emissions.

Data sources : 1995 to 2016 HFC emissions from the EU submissions to the UNFCCC. The 2017 data is from the EEA Approximated EU GHG inventory: proxy GHG estimates for 2017.