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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced a drastic reduction in a group of potent greenhouse gases used in air conditioners and refrigerators as the regulator advances the targets of the revived emissions under the Biden administration.
The EPA went on to progressively reduce the use of hydrofluorocarbons or HFCs by 85% over the next 15 years. It expects its new standard to reduce the equivalent of 4.7 billion tons of carbon dioxide (approximately three years of emissions from the U.S. electricity sector) between 2022 and 2050.
“By progressively reducing HFCs, which can be hundreds to thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide to warm the planet, the EPA is taking significant action to help keep global temperature rise under control.” said EPA administrator Michael Regan on Monday.
Congress ordered the regulator to reduce HFC production and use by one any amendment which happened last year. While the Trump administration stepped back dozens of environmental regulations as part of a deregulatory push, including delaying ratification of the global HFC agreement, President Joe Biden has made climate change a priority.
Last month, Biden committed to the US reduce greenhouse gas emissions at least 50% by the end of the decade, compared to 2005 levels, and has rejoined the Paris climate agreement.
While a a handful of states have already introduced measures to reduce the use of HFCs, the EPA standard would propose the first national limit on chemicals.
“This rapid move by Biden EPA to begin eliminating these extremely potent climate pollutants will provide huge public health and climate benefits to all Americans,” said David Doniger, senior strategic director of the Natural Resources Defense Council. , an environmental group. “Replacing HFCs is a critical and fully feasible first step in tackling the worst of the climate crisis.”
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HFCs are used in refrigeration, air conditioning, building insulation, fire extinguishing systems and aerosols. They have become more widespread in recent decades as a substitute for a different group of chemicals, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which damage the ozone layer.
CFCs were removed under the Montreal Protocol of 1987. But HFCs have proven to be a potent greenhouse gas and there has been a growing clamor to stop using them.
Under the Obama administration, the US signed an agreement in Kigali, Rwanda, to phase out HFCs, but the Trump administration has not sent him to the Senate for ratification. The EPA said a global phasing out could prevent up to 0.5 C of global warming by 2100.
Biden’s two top climate lieutenants, climate envoy John Kerry and White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy, helped negotiate the Kigali deal. Biden seeks ratification by Congress.
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