CCC backs alignment with Euro F-gas regs

UK: The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has advised that the UK government should consider regulatory alignment with the EU in its efforts to replace F-gases with lower-emission alternatives.

While not mentioning the new European F-gas regulation 2024/573 by name, the committee’s Seventh Carbon Budget (CB7) insists that regulatory alignment would reduce costs and provide UK supply chains with the certainty they need to train and grow their workforces. It insist, however, that any new regulation should allow enough time for the sector to prepare for any changes.

The European F-gas regulation (517/2014) passed into UK law following Brexit and the industry now awaits a statutory review of the regulation, not knowing to what degree the governments of England, Scotland and Wales will follow the new, stricter, European regulation 2024/573.

The CCC’s report provides advice to the UK Government on the level of the Seventh Carbon Budget (2038 to 2042) to achieve net zero under the UK’s Climate Change Act (2008). Parliament must then agree each carbon budget for it to be set into law.

The CCC recommends a greenhouse gas emission limit of 535MtCO2e  over the five-year period 2038 to 2042. In 2022, F-gas emissions were 7.6MtCO2e – 49% lower than 1990 levels – and accounted for less than 2% of total UK emissions. At 74%, refrigeration and air conditioning systems were the largest source of leakage. 

In the CCC’s Balanced Pathway, F-gas emissions are projected to fall, relative to 2022 levels, by 73% to 2MtCO2e by 2040 (the middle of the Seventh Carbon Budget period) and to 1.6MtCO2e by 2050.

Reducing emissions from refrigeration is seen as a key measure highlighted to reduce F-gases emissions, involving the use of lower GWP and better end-of-life recovery of F-gases and the use of lower GWP refrigerants in air conditioning and heat pumps.

“Delivering the Balanced Pathway in F-gases will depend on a clear regulatory framework that stimulates the necessary innovation and deployment for decarbonisation,” the report states.

It insists that regulation would provide the necessary incentives for research and development into lower-GWP alternative products and provide UK supply chains with the certainty they need to train and grow their workforces. 

“The Government should consider the case for regulatory alignment with the EU, which would reduce costs since many of the products and equipment involved are imported from the EU. It will be important to ensure that any new regulation allows enough time for the sector to prepare for any changes,” it says.

The Climate Change Committee’s Seventh Carbon Budget report can be accessed here.