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MIPIGGS Newsletter MIPIGGs CALLS FOR EUROPEAN STATES TO BACK PARLIAMENT'S F-GAS CHANGES This Friday the EU States Permanent Representatives meet in Brussels to reconsider the draft regulation on f-gases, which was significantly improved by the European Parliament in its vote on Tuesday. The representatives may try to do a deal with the Parliament over the content of the proposed law before it goes to a plenary vote in the Parliament on 26 October. MIPIGGs co-ordinator Chris Rose said today: "MIPIGGs calls on European Member States to back the Committee's changes as they stand - since this measure was first drafted, evidence of rapid and disastrous climate change has escalated rapidly. We have hurricanes, warming seas, melting polar ice, and dissolving tundra bringing catastrophic ecological changes and threats to human life, all linked to greenhouse gases and global warming. Now is not the time to use entirely avoidable potent industrial greenhouse gases. European States need to give a world lead." DENMARK AND MEPs LEAD THE WAY ON F-GASES On Tuesday the Parliament's environment committee delighted environmental groups and countries such as Denmark and Austria which have progressive positions on controlling potent industrial greenhouse gases, when it adopted a series of amendments including: The mobile air conditioning section was left unchanged apart from the labelling provision). HFC 134a (global warming potential 1300) would be phased out by 2017 while HFC 152a (global warming potential 120) can still be used. Environment Daily reported: 'Refrigeration industry trade body Epee claimed the committee had taken a "step back for sensible policy making on climate change" and had chosen "the most costly and disproportionate options". But Greenpeace hailed a "victory in the battle against global warming" that "vindicates those progressive countries and companies that have already switched to climate-friendly alternatives."' Under the Parliament's formulation, HFCs would be banned in household refrigerators within four years of the regulation's entry into force, but the biggest impact could come from a ban on HFCs in commercial and industrial refrigeration by 2010. The committee also agreed that f-gases "shall only be used where other safe, technically feasible and environmentally acceptable alternatives do not exist." Without provisions for bans however, such policies, which are already in place in some Member States, will have little effect. Speaking to ENDS, the Parliament's rapporteur MEP on the legislation, Avril Doyle, dismissed complaints that a single legal base would fragment the market in f-gases. "With respect, industry's protests are nonsense," she said before the vote. "We employ a legal opinion and we should listen to our legal opinion", she said, referring to a recommendation prepared by the parliament's legal service earlier this year (ED 15/03/05 www.environmentdaily.com/articles/index.cfm?action=article&ref=18411). MEPs said member states should be allowed to promote mobile air conditioning using carbon dioxide as a refrigerant. Manufacturers have said such technology is ready to use commercially within a few years. The Parliamentary vote came a day after an announcement (Monday) that the Danish government was to establish an "advisory centre on HFC-free refrigeration" for industry. Danish environment minister Connie Hedegaard described the centre as part of a three-year, DKr12m (€1.6m) programme aimed at "creating alternatives to HFCs in practice" (2) . ENDS Daily reported that 'Ms Hedegaard said she was confident the initiative would "consolidate Denmark's leading position in the development of environmentally sound technology"'. McDonalds has established an HFC-free restaurant in Denmark, after years of quiet lobbying by Greenpeace, the principal NGO lobbyists on the f-gas issue. Multi-nationals and governments outside the EU will now pay close attention to the outcome of the EU legislative process, as Europe leads in both alternative technologies and policies designed to eliminate the threat from Potent Industrial Greenhouse Gases. Follow-up: (1) ENDS Daily - 1959, 11/10/05 MEPs ratchet up planned EU curbs on f-gases For further information contact: secretary@mipiggs.org |
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