Euro vote puts decarbonisation at risk
31st March 2023
BELGIUM: The European Heat Pump Association (EHPA) has accused MEPs of putting the EU’s path to decarbonised buildings at risk by supporting stricter F-gas revision proposals.
Commenting on yesterday’s vote in the European Parliament, the EHPA said: “The new timeline, if it became law, would mean a ban on F-gases from as early as 2026 for some heat pump types, slamming on the brakes for heat pump deployment and undermining the EU’s climate and energy security ambitions.”
The EHPA argues that the industry has been gradually moving away from F-gases, due to their impact on global warming, and has been replacing them with refrigerants with low global warming potential (GWP) and non-fluorinated alternatives. “However, ramping up the timeline for phasing out F-gases at the same time as ramping up the targets for heat pumps under REPowerEU is incompatible,” it says.
EHPA secretary general Thomas Nowak went further: “We are not talking about replacing a red Lego piece with a yellow one – making this switch needs time, testing and adaptation. The EU needs to allow manufacturers and the whole sector time to continue to do this properly rather than slow down heat pump growth and force consumers back to fossil fuels.”
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