“Pause for thought,” says EPEE
1st March 2023
BELGIUM: EPEE has urged the European Parliament to pause for thought before pressing ahead with the F-gas bans voted for by its environment committee.
The ENVI committee has voted to ban all F-gases in most products, which EPEE (The European Partnership for Energy and the Environment) maintains will remain essential, next to non-fluorinated refrigerants, for the 60 million heat pumps that the EU aims to make available by 2030.
With EPEE describing the vote as “unrealistic and self-defeating”, director general Russell Patten said: “We fully support the phase down of HFCs and the use of natural refrigerants like propane in heat pumps where feasible. But the fact is propane heat pumps cannot be installed in every building for private and commercial use, so customers would have no other choice than to go for fossil fuel technology or direct electric heaters.
“This would undermine Europe’s carbon neutrality goals, slow down the process of building decarbonisation and jeopardise the goals of Repower EU and the EU Green Deal Industrial Plan,” he added.
Earlier this week, EPEE along with 11 other leading associations and groups called on the European Parliament’s environment committee to reject amendments which would ban F-gases.
“We also note that the amendments proposed will shorten the lifetime of currently installed equipment, limiting possibilities for maintenance and repair, while businesses and consumers are already under economic pressure,” said Patten.
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