The informal agreement came after 4 rounds of informal negotiations and will subsequently need to be formally adopted by the European Parliament (in aplenary vote tentatively scheduled in March 2014) and the Council (EU Member States).

EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said that the EU F-Gas deal “will deliver substantial emissions reductions and ensure innovation [… and] will give renewed political momentum to come to aglobal agreement on phasing down f-gases under the Montreal Protocol”. 

The deal reflects a compromise between the distant positions of the Parliament on the one hand and Member States on the other. The final result is thus a regression from the June 2013 European Parliament Environment Committee vote; however, it is still slightly more ambitious than the original European Commission proposal.

HFC bans in commercial refrigeration as of 2022, but exemption for cascade systems

The agreement foresees some bans of f-gases innew equipment, with stronger signals for the commercial refrigeration sector. Acoording to various sources, the informally agreed bans include:

1.Hermetically sealed commercial refrigeration, that contain f-gases with GWP of 150 or more bannedas of 2022

2.Centralised systems for commercial use that contain f-gases with GWP of 150 or more banned as of 2022,except in the primary refrigerant circuit of cascade systems where fluorinated greenhouse gases with a GWP of less than 1500 may be used

“With this agreement large supermarkets soon will be required to switch to climate friendly cooling systems what will give aboost to the green jobs," said Bas Eickhout, Member of the European Parliament and Rapporteur of the new EU F-Gas Regulation, negotiating the filefor the European Parliament.

Additional bans, but with higher GWP thresholds, are foreseen for new small split ACs, but also for servicing stationary refrigeration.

Background & next steps

With a view to cutting f-gas emissions by two-thirds of today's levels by 2030, the European Commission issued a proposal in November 2013 to strengthen the existing EU F-Gas Regulation (2006).

The informal agreement reached among the EU institutions will be discussed in a meeting among the EU Member States tomorrow. It still has to be formally adopted by the European Parliament (in aplenary vote tentatively scheduled for March 2014) and the Council (EU MemberStates). 

The new Regulation is expected to be published in the Official Journal of the EU in the summer of 2014, and enter into forcein January 2015.

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