This morning, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a “phase down [in the] production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in the United States by 85 percent over the next 15 years.” The EPA estimates that “the total emission reductions of the proposal from 2022 to 2050 are projected to amount to the equivalent of 4.7 billion metric tons of CO2 – nearly equal to three years of U.S. power sector emissions at 2019 levels.”
This marks a victory for a historically important Greenpeace project that started in the late 1980s, when the organization worked to phase out CFCs. The campaign involved a mix of pressuring and engaging corporations to adopt safer alternatives beyond substituting HFCs for CFCs to meet regulatory standards that didn’t account for climate-related impacts.
In response, Charlie Cray, senior research specialist at Greenpeace USA, said:
“The phase down of HFCs is the type of substantive climate action we hope to see more of from President Biden and his administration. With safer substitutes readily available there is no need to continue using HFCs, some of which are thousands of times worse for the planet than carbon dioxide. This is a positive step if we are going to limit the impacts of the climate crisis.”
