Industry and NRDC Agree on Speeding Up Phase Out of Super-Pollutant HFCs

WASHINGTON – Major air conditioning and refrigerator manufacturers and the Natural Resources Defense Council today agreed to support the replacement of super-polluting hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, in home air conditioning systems nationwide with safer refrigerants by 2023.

In a letter to the California Air Resources Board, they also supported new California rules to phase down HFCs in many other cooling systems, and to back similar HFC curbs in other states, a notable development because Connecticut, Maryland and New York announced plans to reduce HFCs this week.

The following is a statement from David Doniger, senior strategic director in the Climate & Clean Energy program at the Natural Resources Defense Council: 

“This is a super week for saving the climate and saving lives. The air conditioning industry, coolant manufacturers and key states have all made crucial commitments to ending super-bad HFCs—filling a void left in Washington. HFCs have thousands of times the heat-trapping power of carbon dioxide. We have to get rid of them or we’ll have no chance of avoiding dangerous and deadly impacts from climate change. We need more cooling with less warming—now.”

The letter signed by the Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute, NRDC and manufacturers is here.

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The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the world's natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Bozeman, MT, and Beijing. Visit us at www.nrdc.org and follow us on Twitter @NRDC.