Reducing Emissions
Each year from 2015 there has been a decline in HFC emissions and a decreasing trend in their contribution to the total GHG emissions. In 2017 HFCs emissions had reduced by 7.4% compared to 2014 and accounted for 2.4% of total GHG emissions. These trends are a consequence of the controls under F-gas legislation in the EU (F-gas regulations 842/2006, 517/2014 and the MAC Directive 2006/40/EC).
According to its impact assessment, the F-gas Regulation is inteneded to reduce the EU’s F-gas emissions by two-thirds by 2030 compared with 2014 levels. If achieved this would reduce HFC emissions to about 38 Mtonnes CO2e. If total GHG emissions are reduced by 40% by 2030 then HFCs would then contribute about 1.1% to the total.
Explanatory notes:
Each year, each member state of the European Union submits estimates of its greenhouse gas emissions to the United Nations as part of its commitment to the Rio Convention. The data includes all 28 members of the EU for all years. The total GHG emissions excludes the effect of changes in land use – LULUC. These numbers are added together by the European Environment Agency (EEA) to provide totals for the whole of the EU. In 2019, the EEA also published separately the emissions of F-gases and the relevant data set. The growth in HFC emissions in the period until 2014 reflects both the part played by HFCs in the global conversion of refrigeration, air conditioning and insulation foam blowing away from CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) and HCFCs (hydrochlorofluorocarbons) offset to some extent by the steps taken by chemical manufacturers to reduce by-product HFC- 23 emissions from the manufacture of HCFC-22. The EU has reported over 98% reduction in HFC-23 emissions in 2017 compared to 1990.
Sources
2019 EEA Emissions and supply of fluorinated greenhouse gases in Europe
2019 EEA Total greenhouse gas emission trends and projections in Europe https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/greenhouse-gas-emission-trends-6/assessment-3
EEA Annual European Union greenhouse gas inventory 1990–2017 and inventory report 2019
Submission under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol
And data sets downloaded from EEA website