EIA questions retailers’ HFC commitment

FRANCE: The Consumer Goods Forum, which this week called upon world leaders to agree a global climate deal, has come in for criticism for its own lack of action.

Calling on world leaders to secure an ambitious and legally binding global climate deal, the Board of The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) also used its Global Summit in Paris this week to renew its commitment to begin phasing-out HFCs in new refrigeration installations by 2015 and replace them with “natural” refrigerants.

However, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has called upon the CGF to live up to that commitment. In its document Time to Commit on HFCs, the EIA says: “Our research shows that some CGF members have made significant efforts to realise this commitment while others are not yet out of the starting blocks.”

Members of the Consumer Goods Forum include some 400 retailers, manufacturers, service providers, and other stakeholders across 70 countries.

As part of its commitment made in 2010 to phase out HFCs in new installations from 2015,  the CGF also pledged to start piloting solutions for new installations with natural refrigerants.

Calling on retailers to provide leadership on HFCs, the EIA claims that of the 25 retailer Board members, as many as 16 have yet to make a public commitment to phase out HFCs in new installations from 2015 and just 18 appear to be piloting systems with natural refrigerants.

“This indicates that numerous retailers are unprepared to begin phasing out HFC refrigeration in 2015,” it says.

Further, it calls upon retailers to apply its commitments globally.

“It is also important to note that, in some cases,  a company’s commitment to move away from HFCs only appears to  apply to the country in which they are based,” the EIA says.