World News

BELGIUM: Daikin Europe has officially received BREEAM Excellent certification for its €140m research and development centre in Ghent, which became operational in 2024. 

USA: Johnson Controls has released its second data centre reference design guide for cooling gigawatt‑scale AI factories.

UK: Barocal, a Cambridge-based deep company developing solid-state cooling and heating systems, has raised $10m to accelerate development and scale its engineering team ahead of commercial deployment.

BELGIUM: Sales of residential heat pumps are said to have increased by an average of 25% in France, Germany and Poland in the first quarter of 2026.

USA: The US Customs and Border Protection is to auction approximately 15 tonnes of HFC refrigerants seized in actions by its officers. 

USA: Leading US retailer Kroger will pay a $2.5m civil penalty and spend an estimated $100m over the next three years to reduce refrigerant leaks from its refrigerators and other equipment. 

USA: The growing importance of cooling to the burgeoning data centre market is reflected in claims by Carrier of data centre orders being up over 500% in Q1.

AUSTRALIA: A-Gas, the refrigerant supplier and lifecycle management company, has created a reclamation rewards scheme in collaboration with Australian HVACR wholesalers Actrol and Airefrig.

USA: Carrier has increased its investment in ZutaCore, the US direct-to-chip, waterless liquid cooling solutions company that first attracted its interest last year.

UK: Critical digital infrastructure Vertiv has acquired Strategic Thermal Labs, a US specialist in advanced liquid-cooling technologies. 

UK: Cool Intelligence is the theme for this year’s World Refrigeration Day 2026, focused on how cooling and sustainable heating systems are designed, installed, operated and maintained intelligently.

ITALY: Those who breach the European F-gas regulations in Italy now face the possibility of one year in jail and fines of up to €150,000. 

JAPAN: The introduction of Panasonic’s HVAC Cloud IoT service in 33 7-Eleven stores in Japan could save the retailer up to 28.1% in air conditioning energy consumption.

SWEDEN: Munters claims to have received an order worth approximately SEK2bn (€184m) from a colocation data centre provider in the US. 

ITALY/USA: Milan-based refrigeration and air conditioning component manufacturer Castel has announced the sudden death of Alessandro Sertorio, the CEO of its US subsidiary. 

GERMANY: Heat exchanger product manufacturer, Güntner Group, has appointed Yan Evans as managing director of its global data centre business.  

GERMANY: The continuing black market in illegal refrigerants In Europe has been exposed in a new documentary by the German independent broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW).

EUROPE: Boosting heat pump sales to four million per year by 2030 and tackling electricity to gas price ratios are two of the goals of Europe's AccelerateEU energy plan.

SWITZERLAND/UK: An increase in feedstock emissions of ozone depleting gases are said to be threatening the recovery of the ozone layer. 

JAPAN: Hitachi has sold its household appliance interests to Nojima Corp to concentrate on its air conditioning business.

POLAND: Polish authorities have discovered an attempt to smuggle four 13.6kg cylinders of R134a in a vehicle stopped in Zosin on the border with Ukraine.

USA: Trane Technologies has celebrated the launch of its new Advanced Technology Training Centre (ATTC), a 45,000ft2 (4,180m2) facility at the company’s North America HQ in Davidson, North Carolina.

NETHERLANDS: Nordic Climate Group has acquired Ten Have Installatie BV, an Amsterdam-based company offering design, installation, and maintenance of air conditioning, heat pump, air handling, and heating systems.

USA: “Natural” refrigerants body, the North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council (NASRC) has entered into a new memorandum of understanding with ASHRAE.

HAITI: The Republic of Haiti is the latest country to ratify the Kigali Amendment to phase down HFCs.

JAPAN: Daikin has joined a collaboration to build Japan's first circular scheme to recover and recycle rare earth magnets from the Japanese manufacturer’s commercial air conditioning compressors.

GERMANY: Viessmann, along with transmission system operators TenneT Germany and TransnetBW, claim to have demonstrated that heat pumps can help prevent grid congestion.