Advancing Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) through Climate-Friendly Refrigeration and Air Conditioning

Population growth, urbanisation, an increasing middle class, changing lifestyles and rising ambient temperatures drive a growing demand for refrigeration, air conditioning and foam (RAC&F) products – a development that cannot be disregarded any longer. RAC&F applications are responsible for large amounts of CO2 and hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) emissions – two greenhouse gases (GHG) reported under the UNFCCC. As the demand for cooling rises, the GHG emissions – resulting from both electricity consumption and the use of refrigerants and blowing agents with high global warming potential (GWP) – are also growing rapidly. Specifically HFCs have high GWPs of up to 4000 CO2eq, which are these times increasingly used as substitutes to phase out hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) - as ozone depleting substances (ODS) under the Montreal Protocol (MP). At the 28th Meetings of the Parties (MOP) to the MP in October 2016 in Kigali, parties agreed to phase down HFC emissions over the next three decades, thereby building a fundamental pillar to achieving the ultimate goal set out in the Paris Agreement about a year earlier. According to an analysis by G. Velders et al (2016), the Kigali Amendment will avoid nearly 90 percent of the temperature increase that HFCs could have caused. The following guidance assists policymakers to design national mitigation strategies for their RAC&F sector to meet the increasing ambition levels expected in revised NDCs. By aligning efforts taken under the two relevant international regimes, the UNFCCC and the Montreal Protocol, the RAC&F sector can make a significant contribution towards reaching the 2°C target, or even better, the enhanced 1.5°C target.