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EIA and Greenpeace relaunch Cool Technologies website to promote clean cooling

LONDON: Keeping cool in a warming world just became a little easier, thanks to the Cool Technologies sustainable cooling database.

As temperatures rise, refrigeration and air-conditioning systems are vital to help keep people cool and products chilled or frozen. Yet it is ironic that refrigerant gases and the energy used in current cooling equipment are significant contributors to two global crises – climate change and ozone layer depletion.

To help combat these, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Greenpeace today relaunch Cool Technologies [www.cooltechnologies.org], a database showcasing clean cooling technologies as alternatives to the climate-damaging hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) and hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) systems used at present.

Cool Technologies features commercially available equipment using natural refrigerants (hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide, ammonia, water and air) as well as Not-In-Kind technologies (which do not use vapour compression cycles). It also features case studies of companies deploying these technologies and enjoying the benefits of the greater energy efficiency that many of these systems boast.

“Sustainable cooling is about avoiding obsolete, inefficient technologies which are harmful to the environment. By understanding what Cool Technologies are available and working well for others, manufacturers and businesses can make the best choice for the future.” said Fionnuala Walravens, Senior Climate Campaigner at EIA.

The website, targeted primarily at business in the developing world, will also help raise awareness of and build confidence in HFC-free alternatives for clean cooling worldwide. It is being relaunched to coincide with the 31st Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol in Rome, Italy

“As the global demand for air-conditioning and refrigeration grows, natural refrigerants are emerging as sustainable solutions; saving the planet from billions of tonnes of greenhouse gases and helping to keep global warming below 1.5°C,” said Paula Tejón Carbajal, Global Campaign Strategist at Greenpeace International.

Conventional refrigeration and air-conditioning systems have relied on the use of F-gases for the past few decades. F-gases are super greenhouse gases, thousands of times more damaging than carbon dioxide. HFCs, the most recent generation of F-gases, are now being phased out by the Montreal Protocol.

“Going HFC-free is an opportunity for businesses across the globe to future proof their investments, clean up the cooling sector and save on energy bills,” added Walravens.

 

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EDITORS’ NOTES

  1. The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) investigates and campaigns against environmental crime and abuses. Our undercover investigations expose transnational wildlife crime, with a focus on elephants, pangolins and tigers, and forest crimes such as illegal logging and deforestation for cash crops such as palm oil; we work to safeguard global marine ecosystems by tackling plastic pollution, exposing illegal fishing and seeking an end to all whaling; and we address the threat of global warming by campaigning to curtail powerful refrigerant greenhouse gases and exposing related criminal trade.
  2. The Cool Technologies Database is not meant to be all-inclusive, nor is the inclusion of any enterprise an endorsement of any company and its products. The website does not have a commercial purpose and we do not accept payments for any information featured.
  3. Discover the new and improved Cool Technologies website at cooltechnologies.org
  4. The Montreal Protocol is celebrated as the world’s most successful environmental treaty. Agreed in 1987, it took on a pressing mission to regulate the chemicals directly destroying Earth’s ozone layer, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and subsequently hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs). In 2016 the Montreal Protocol agreed to phase-down the use of climate-damaging hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), starting in 2019 for developed countries and 2024 for most developing countries.