Cooling

Refrigeration and air conditioning are responsible for a significant share of global greenhouse gas emissions. Especially in developing countries and emerging economies, the demand for cooling equipment is rising. Cooling mostly relies on the usage of refrigerants which cause major climate and environmental problems. CFCs, HCFCs are both ozone depleting and climate damaging substances. Low levels of efficiency and high leakage rates of refrigerant gases with high global warming potential will increase these emissions drastically.

Overview

Direct and indirect emissions

Direct emissions are due to the release of refrigerant. They can occur during normal operation because of leaks from pipes and components. Without appropriate recovery and recycling facilities, most direct emissions occur when the refrigerant is exchanged during regular servicing or when a unit is dismantled (end-of-life emissions). Direct emissions are given in CO₂ equivalents and weighted according to the global warming potential (GWP) of refrigerants. Even though the amount of refrigerant in small units is only in the range of grams to a few kilograms, the high GWP of HCFCs and HFCs means that direct emissions contribute approximately 1/3 to total GHG emissions from the RAC sector.

Indirect emissions are due to energy consumption. They contribute the other 2/3 of the total emissions. These depend heavily on the source of electricity and how much CO₂ is emitted during its generation and are therefore different for each country. Indirect emissions can be reduced by raising the energy efficiency of a product or by decarbonising electricity production. Calculations on this website focus only on potential CO₂ emission reductions achieved by energy efficiency measures; the introduction of less carbon intensive renewable energies is not accounted for in the calculations. Indirect emissions are also given in CO₂ equivalents.

Natural refrigerants

In contrast to the artificial refrigerants CFCs, HCFCs and HFCs, natural refrigerants are substances occurring in nature. The “natural 5” are CO₂, ammonia, hydrocarbons, air and water and they have no ozone depleting potential, no or negligible global warming potential.