EU urges HVAC&R industry to change

The rows at this year’s ASERCOM EPEE Symposium on the day before Chillventa in Nuremberg were packed. ASERCOM President Marco Masini says: “The symposium rows were filled to capacity and everybody was glued to the chair. This popularity shows that the major challenges facing the industry move many people and there is the need for more and more information to understand the direction the industry shall be taken.“ There were also more reasons for being there: „The crises in the world are putting a strain on supply chains. At the same time, it is our technology that plays an important role in coping with climate change and at the same time is increasingly regulated by the EU. Reason enough to talk intensively about the big issues.”

Tom Van Ierland, Head of Unit for the Montreal Protocol, Clean Cooling & Heating and Digital Transition at the EU Commission, pointed out in his keynote that the HVAC&R industry will be particularly held accountable in the revision of the F-Gas Regulation because it can deliver. “The F-gases contribute to the solution in emission reduction but they’re part of the problem. We see bigger reductions in your sector than in others in terms of speed to accelerate the whole transition”, was his conclusion. The inclusion of MDI (Medical Dose Inhalers) in the calculation of the quantities would offer opportunities, as there is also a huge potential for rapid emission reductions here. The HVAC&R industry could benefit from this. This position was not without opposition, however, as the industry is made dependent on developments in another sector at this point.