Biden administration proposes to stop the usage of hydrofluorocarbons
The United States Environmental Protection Agency on Monday put forward a rule to cut down the use of hydrofluorocarbons, a powerful climate-warming gas that is commonly used in refrigerators and air conditioners by a margin of 85% over the next 15 years. The move is said to play a large part in U.S. plans to halve its greenhouse gas emissions by this decade.
The proposal states that a stoppage on the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) would stop around 900 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions from reaching the atmosphere over that period, which is a climate impact similar to preventing the combustion of a trillion tons of coal.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan stated that “By phasing down HFCs, which can be hundreds to thousands of times more powerful than carbon dioxide at warming the planet, EPA is taking a major action to help keep global temperature rise in check.”
The proposal would set yearly ‘allocations’ for every U.S. HFC producer and importer that gradually decreases with time.
The present proposal comes from a law passed by Congress in December 2020 that directed the EPA to issue rulings to slow down HFC production and imports.
The EPA stated that the proposal will contribute considerably to U.S. President Joe Biden’s larger climate goals, which aim to cut down national greenhouse gas emissions by 50-52% below 2005 levels by 2030. Biden announced this target in March at the U.S.-hosted international climate summit.
