Press Release

European Parliament must be pragmatic to reach F-Gas goals

28 February 2023

2 min read

Brussels, 28 February 2023. Eurovent, together with 11 leading European associations and global partners active on the European market, call on the European Parliament’s Environment Committee to reject amendments which ban fluorinated gases, jeopardising the EU’s climate and energy security goals.

The Environment Committee is scheduled to vote on 01 March on the F-Gas Regulation that aims to reduce emissions from hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and related fluorinated substances, which are used in many products, including heat pumps and foam insulation. The 12 associations signed a letter which states that ENVI’s proposal will jeopardise the goals of REPowerEU and the EU Industrial Green Deal, and the compromised amendments 10, 11, 13, 14 and 21 to the F-Gas Regulation are particularly problematic.

Russell Patten, Director General of the European Partnership for Energy and the Environment (EPEE), stated: “Several of the Committee’s amendments are simply impossible for the industry to achieve. The 12 co-signatories of this letter, whilst supporting the further phase down of HFCs, are gravely concerned that they will undermine Europe’s carbon neutrality goals and slow down the process of building decarbonisation.”

The compromised amendments 10, 11, 13, 14 and 21:

Propose quota levels for HFCs that will not support the service needs of existing equipment or the roll-out of new energy-efficient heating and cooling equipment
Call for unfeasible bans on gases without sufficient consideration of safety, applicability, energy efficiency and cost
Disregard critical training and certification requirements for installation and service technicians, most from small businesses
Include quota plans that will disincentivise manufacturing within the EU
Give the EU Commission permission to adapt changes to the regulation without going through the full legislative process

The associations call for a rejection of these amendments. Patten further comments: “The Alliance considers that Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy’s (ITRE) own opinion, adopted in January 2023, strikes an ambitious yet pragmatic and realistic phase down solution given the availability, and forecast future deployment of the equipment containing non-fluorinated gas alternatives that many of our members manufacture and market.”

“We are committed to offering solutions that can mitigate climate change and reduce carbon emissions,” said Paolo Falcioni, Director General of APPLiA. “However, ENVI’s proposal leads to an unrealistically strict scenario leaving the market with no possibility to meet consumers’ demand for renewables and highly efficient cooling and heating technology,” he added.

“We represent the industries that will deliver on decarbonising buildings through innovative heating, cooling and refrigeration solutions,” said Francesco Scuderi, Secretary General of Eurovent. “We are fully committed to carbon neutrality by 2050 and look forward to working with Parliament to achieve our shared goals.”

“We urge MEPs of the ENVI Committee to take a realistic position enabling the deployment of heat pumps across the EU, recognising the diversity in building tradition, safety standards and building codes,” said Thomas Nowak, Secretary General of the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA). “Heat pumps are at the core of the EU efforts for decarbonisation of heating. A refrigerant regulation that does not sufficiently value the needs of the sector in providing decarbonised heating and cooling would jeopardise the EU climate neutrality objectives in favour of more polluting devices.”

“As components manufacturers for most of the technologies aiming to be used from Europe to decarbonise, ASERCOM’s members are already striving to provide solutions for the fastest transition to very low GWP solutions, but we need to do it by providing those in a steep but fluid and achievable industrial cycle,” said Marco Masini, ASERCOM President.