HARC Meeting
June 11, 2012
Las Vegas, Nevada
Climate Change - International
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Durban Platform for Enhanced Action
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Adopted at COP 17 in November 2011
Negotiations to begin this year on a new
legally-binding climate change accord to be
signed by 2015 and come into force in 2020
New accord will include commitments for all
countries, both developed and developing
EU agreed to extend the Kyoto Protocol until
2017, but Japan, Canada, and Russia did not
Climate Change - International
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Durban Platform for Enhanced Action
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First negotiating session held May 14-25 in
Bonn – Ad Hoc Working Group on the
Durban Platform (ADP)
No consensus on what the Durban outcome
means for the UNFCCC negotiating process
or what Durban was designed to do
Did not reach agreement on agenda until last
day of the two-week meeting
Climate Change - International
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Kyoto Protocol
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Negotiations on extending Kyoto were also
difficult
Developing nations want the second
commitment period to extend until 2020 but
EU only agreed to 2017
Pressure on countries that have not agreed
to extend Kyoto
EU linked agreement to extend Kyoto on
progress in other forums such as the ADP
Climate Change - International
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Climate Technology Center & Network
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CTC&N is intended to be a focal point for
technology transfer
Help developing countries identify and
implmement technology projects and
strategies to enhance low-emission,
climate-resilent development
Three proposals were considered to host
the CTC&N – likely to be awarded to a
UNEP led consortium
Climate Change - HFCs
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Montreal Protocol
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Amendments proposed in 2012 would add HFCs
to MP and slowly phase down their production
Key elements:
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List 21 specified HFCs as new Annex F to MP
Make available funding under the Multilateral
Fund for the phase down of HFC production
Strictly limit HFC-23 byproduct emissions resulting
from the production of HCFCs (e.g. HCFC 22)
Require licensing of HFC imports and exports,
and ban imports and exports to non-Parties
Climate Change - HFCs
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Montreal Protocol
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Micronesia:
- 15% reduction in 2015
- 30% in 2018
- 45% in 2021
- 55% in 2024
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- 70% in 2027
- 85% in 2030
- 90% in 2032
Developed country baseline would be based on 2004-2006
annual production and consumption of HFCs and HCFCs
Developing country baseline would be based on 2007-2009
annual production and consumption of HCFCs only
Developing countries would be subject to the same reduction
schedule but with a six-year grace period (phase down would
start in 2021 and reach 90% in 2038)
Climate Change - HFCs
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Montreal Protocol
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United States, Canada, Mexico:
- 10% reduction in 2016
- 30% in 2020
- 50% in 2025
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- 70% in 2029
- 85% in 2033
Developed country baseline would be based on 2005-2008
annual production and consumption of HFCs and 85% of 20052008 annual production and consumption of HCFCs
Developing country baseline would be based on 2005-2008
annual production and consumption of HCFCs only
Developing country phase down would begin 2 years later in
2018 with a production freeze and reach the 85% reduction
level 10 years later in 2043
Climate Change - HFCs
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Montreal Protocol
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Amendments will be discussed at the OEWG
meeting in July and considered for approval
at the Meeting of Parties in November
A small group of countries including India,
China, and Brazil have blocked any formal
progress on the amendments
Have not allowed formation of contact group
to begin formal discussion of amendments
Climate Change - HFCs
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Montreal Protocol
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Right now it seems extremely unlikely that the
amendments would be agreed to this year
Proponents are looking to raise the profile of
the issue and gain support for amendments
outside of MP process in order to build
momentum within the MP process
Climate Change - HFCs
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Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce
Short-Lived Climate Pollutants
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New international coalition formed to address
emissions of three greenhouse gases: black
carbon, methane, HFCs
Hosted by UNEP and currently includes
following members: Bangladesh, Canada,
Colombia, Ghana, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria,
Norway, Sweden, United States, European
Commission, World Bank
Climate Change - HFCs
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Climate and Clean Air Coalition
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Held first meeting in April in Stockholm
Five scaled-up initiatives were approved:
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Fast action on diesel emissions
Upgrading old inefficient brick kilns
Accelerating reduction of methane from landfills
Speeding up cuts in methane and other emissions
from the oil and gas industry
Accelerating alternatives to HFCs
Climate Change - HFCs
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Climate and Clean Air Coalition
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Draft HFC concept paper suggests a highlevel global roundtable to establish private
sector and government pledges to:
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Promote climate-friendly alternatives/technologies
Minimize HFC leaks
Encourage recovery, recycling, reclamation, and
eventual destruction of HFC supplies
Draft focuses on use of HFCs in air
conditioning, refrigeration, and foam
Climate Change - HFCs
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Climate and Clean Air Coalition
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Draft HFC paper next steps:
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Identify private sector, NGO, IGO, and
government partners and hold initial planning
meeting in next 2-5 months
Establish commitments and pledges from above
partners over next 6 months
Convene a high-level roundtable meeting in fall
Initiative technology sector demonstration projects
in key HFC use sectors within 6 months
Climate Change - HFCs
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Bangkok Technology Conference
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Advancing Ozone & Climate Protection
Technologies: Next Steps
July 21-22, 2012
United Nations Conference Centre, Bangkok
Sponsored by:
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United Nations Environment Programme
United Nations Development Programme
Government of the United States of America
Alliance for Responsible Atmospheric Policy
Climate Change - HFCs
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NRDC/EIA Petitions on HFC-134a
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Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA)
and the Natural Resources Defense Council
(NRDC) filed petitions in April requesting that
EPA take actions on HFC-134a and other
HFCs under the SNAP program
New petitions follow-up on a petition filed in
May 2010 by NRDC and EIA on the use of
HFC-134a in motor vehicle air conditioning
Climate Change - HFCs
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NRDC Petition
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Remove HFC-134a from list of acceptable
substitutes for CFC-12 in household
refrigerators, freezers and stand-alone retail
food refrigerators and freezers
Restrict the sales of SNAP listed refrigerants
to all except certified technicians
Adopt a standardized procedure to determine
speed of transition from high-GWP HFCs to
next-generation alternatives and substitutes
Climate Change - HFCs
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EIA Petition
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Remove HFC-134a and HFC-134a blends
from the list of acceptable substitutes for any
ozone depleting substance (ODS) in any nonessential uses under EPA’s SNAP program,
and remove HFC-134a and HFC-134a blends
from such lists in every other end-use
category where more benign alternatives are
available
Climate Change - HFCs
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NRDC/EIA Petitions on HFC-134a
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EPA has not yet acted on 2010 petitions
Same level of information is required to delist
an alternative from SNAP as to get one listed
EPA will be reviewing the NRDC and EIA
petitions for completeness
EU F-Gas Regulation Review
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September report from European Commission
(EC) concludes that the EU should take further
action to reduce emissions of F-gases beyond
the existing regulation
Presents the following options:
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Gradually declining limits on the quantity of Fgases placed on the EU market
Use and marketing prohibitions for new
equipment and products (bans)
Voluntary environmental agreements
EU F-Gas Regulation Review
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Commission launched a consultation that
closed in December asking stakeholders to
comment on possible options for
strengthening EU measures to reduce
emissions of fluorinated gases
HARC provided comments
Stakeholder meeting was held in Brussels
in February with about 130 participants
EU F-Gas Regulation Review
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Stakeholder Meeting Minutes
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A large majority of industry acknowledged the
need for further EU action and preferred or
could live with a phase-down option
NGOs and a few industrial participants
favored bans where alternatives overall
would lead to lower greenhouse gas
emissions
NGOs saw a phase-down as a
complementary measure to bans
EU F-Gas Regulation Review
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Stakeholder Meeting Minutes
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A few participants wanted to focus on
containment only
Member States had no official positions, but
indicated support for a phase-down measure
Many would like to see action at the global
level through the Montreal Protocol
A need for a mix of policies was confirmed by
many stakeholders
EU F-Gas Regulation Review
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Stakeholder Meeting Minutes
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Existing equipment should not be made
redundant; therefore, it would be crucial that
potential bans target only the use of F-gases
in new equipment
Availability of F-gases should be safeguarded
for certain necessary uses in e.g. in fire
protection and medical aerosols
EU F-Gas Regulation Review
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Commission proposal on possible revisions to
F-gas regulation is expected in October
Speculation is that it will contain some kind of
phase-down approach in conjunction with some
product bans
Ban on the use of HFC-23 in fire protection was
suggested in the contractor report and is a likely
candidate for inclusion in the final regulation
Climate Change - Australia
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Australia Carbon Tax
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Clean energy plan includes carbon tax of
$23 per ton beginning July 1, 2012
Carbon price is fixed for first three years,
rising 2.5% per year
On July 1, 2015 carbon price becomes
flexible under an emissions trading scheme
International linking to credible markets and
emission trading schemes as of 2015
Climate Change - Australia
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Australia Carbon Tax
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Carbon tax does not directly cover HFCs
Equivalent carbon price applied to HFCs
under existing legislation on ODS
Covers imports of bulk HFCs and precharged equipment
Beginning July 1, 2013, incentives would be
provided for destruction of waste synthetic
greenhouse gases, including ODS
Climate Change - Australia
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Australia Carbon Tax
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GWPs used for HFC tax based on SAR:
HFC-227ea = 2900, HFC-125 = 2,800, HFC236fa = 6,300, HFC-23 = 11,700
Import one metric ton of HFC-227ea would
incur a tax of $66,700 (about $30 per pound)
Plus a cost recovery levy of $165 per ton
Climate Change - Australia
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Australia Carbon Tax
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Legislation allows for exemptions where it is
impractical to apply or where synthetic
gases are used for medical, veterinary,
health or safety purpose
Metered dose inhalers and imported foam
products are exempt as of July 1, 2012
Exemptions for other products will be
considered on a case-by-case basis
Climate Change - HEEP
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2010 data collection complete
Due to consolidations and company changes
we are down to 14 reporting parties
2010 data about 38% higher than 2009 data
More in line with past data and with the level
trend we have seen since 2004
For 2010 about 68% of HFCs sold for recharge came from recyclers
Climate Change – HEEP
Year
Companies Reporting
MMTCO2
2002
16
0.484
2003
16
0.490
2004
15
0.559
2005
15
0.618
2006
15
0.559
2007
15
0.622
2008
15
0.573
2009
15
0.421
2010
14
0.580
HEEP Statistics and Trend
Reported Fire Protection Emissions
of HFCs & PFCs
Statistical Summary
0.545
0.067
12.3%
0.80
Emissions, MMTCO2
Average
St Dev
St Dev, %
0.70
0.60
0.50
0.40
0.30
0.20
0.10
y = 0.0035x - 6.4425
0.00
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Year
• The data are shown with error bars of one standard deviation, 0.067 MMT/yr.
• The nine-year trend line suggests a slight increase in reported emissions of 0.0035 MMT CO2 Equiv/yr. This
value, however, is only 5% of the standard deviation, so the better conclusion is that reported emissions have
been stable over the measurement period.
• The reported emissions value for 2009 appears to be aberrant, possibly reflecting an effect of the economic
downturn of the period.
Climate Change - HEEP
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2011 data collection will begin in July
2011 will represent 10 years of HEEP data
How should HARC recognize 10 years of
HEEP?
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Press Release
Newsletter
Conference presentation – NFPA or FSSA
Possible activities in conjunction with EPA
Ways to further recognize participating companies
Recycling Clean Agents
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HARC/HRC Leadership
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Code of Practice for Sale of Halons
Code of Practice for Halon Reclaiming
Companies
Voluntary Code of Practice for the
Reduction of Emissions of HFC and PFC
Fire Protection Agents (VCOP)
HFC/PFC Emissions Estimating Project
(HEEP)
Recycling Clean Agents
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Sampling by recyclers shows that a significant
percentage of used clean agents do not meet
specification
Best practice would be for this agent to be
reclaimed to specification and tested prior to
being reinstalled in a fire protection system
Proposal that HARC take action on this issue
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Code of Practice for Clean Agent Reclaiming
Possible Proposal for Revision to NFPA Standards
DOD Activities
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USMC released a pre-solicitation for Fire Suppression
System - Extinguishing Subsystem (FSS-ES)
FSS-ES is a twin agent system to be mounted in cargo
bed of a High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle
(HMMWV)
FSS-ES should be able to extinguish Class A fires,
2,500 square foot static pool hydrocarbon Class B
fires, and three-dimensional Class B fires
Performance spec and other information at fbo.gov
under solicitation number M67854-12-R-5063
Formal solicitation should be released very soon
DOD Activities
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As mentioned at past meetings, the Army is working to
reduce the number of extinguisher configurations that
it has to support for its ground vehicles
Looking for extinguishers that have lower life-cycle
cost, higher reliability, and are backward compatible
with current equipment
Both rechargeable and single-use designs will be
considered
Synopsis should be released in late June and the
solicitation later in July via FedBizOpps
Will provide solicitation number as soon as available.
ASTM D26.09 Subcommittee
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D5632 (Halon 1301 Specification) has been
published and is available from ASTM
Next meeting will be a virtual meeting at 1pm
EST on July 26, 2012
NFPA - GFE
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NFPA has instituted a new online process for
submission of proposals
The system is available to anyone, NFPA
members and nonmembers
Access to the online toll requires login name
and password
Nonmembers, who do not have a member
login profile must “register,” at no cost, to
create a login account
NFPA - GFE
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NFPA has revamped its document
management process
What was called the “Proposal” stage is now
called the “1st Draft” stage
The ”ROP Meeting” is the “1st Draft” meeting
The “Report on Comments” stage is the “2nd
Draft” stage
There are a number of other detailed changes
governing committee revision process that
make meetings more productive
NFPA - GFE
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NFPA 12 and NFPA 2001 are in the Fall
2014 revision cycle
The deadline for proposals is January 4,
2013
ISO TC 21 SC 8
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Next meeting is September 11-12, 2012 in
Milan
ISO 14520 revision process continues
Working Groups have been meeting over the
past year on
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ISO 14520, Annex B – Cup-Burner - Goal is to
harmonize the NFPA and ISO versions
ISO 14520, Annex E – Enclosure Integrity /
Door Fan Procedure - Working to make
improvements
ICAO/EU Aviation Regulations
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European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA)
issued rulemaking proposals to make their
regulations compliant with EU legislation on the
progressive phasing out of halons, and to deal
with the issue of preventing the use of
contaminated halon
Generally, stakeholders agreed with the
recommended amendments in order to be
compliant with EU legislation and with ICAO
Annex 8
ICAO/EU Aviation Regulations
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Also they believed the EU legislation implies
compliance with recent amendments (i.e.,
December 2011) to ICAO Annex 6 (i.e., newly
produced aircraft based on Type Certificate)
However, many stated that the “end dates” in
the EU regulation may neither be feasible, nor
justified comparing the cost of retrofit with the
very small quantities of halon released
HTOC – Decision XXIII/9
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Report used available information from
previous reports of HCFCs and HFCs as well
as information from HCFC alternatives
manufacturers
Only HCFC Blend A is still produced for the
total flood market and is primarily used for
recharge, and even this is diminishing
because of changes to national regulations
where it is accepted
HTOC – Decision XXIII/9
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Alternatives to HCFCs for total flood available
but cost comparison table is out of date
(received no input)
However, relatively the ratios haven’t changed
much (according to data T. Cortina recently
obtained), although FK 5-1-12 now appears to
be a less expensive option than inert gases for
the Class B example
Could update in HTOC Assessment report
HTOC – Decision XXIII/9
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Only HCFC Blend B is marketed in both nonA5 and A5 countries for steaming applications
Limited quantities of HCFC-123 and HCFC
Blend E still marketed in A5 countries such as
India and Indonesia, performance unknown
HTOC – Decision XXIII/9
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Alternatives to HCFC-123 based streaming
agents available
Traditional (e.g., multipurpose dry powder,
water, and CO2), cheaper and more
environmentally friendly
Where cleanliness a necessity, HFC-236fa
currently the only alternative, however GWP a
problem and some studies indicate HCFC-123
based may be environmentally preferable
HTOC – Decision XXIII/9
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Unsaturated HBFC, 2-BTP, has completed fire
testing and many of the toxicity tests required
for commercialization
Should it receive final approvals , it would be
an effective substitute for HCFC Blend B,
although it may be more expensive
HTOC – Decision XXIII/9
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With the exception of aircraft cargo bays, fire
extinguishing agent alternatives to ODS, in the
form of non-ozone depleting gases, gaspowder blends, powders and other not-in-kind
technologies (i.e., non-gaseous agents) are
now available for virtually every fire and
explosion protection application once served
by ODS
HTOC Manchester Meeting
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Meeting primarily concerned with response to
Decisions XXIII/9 (HCFC replacements) and
XXIII/10 (Committee organization and
succession planning), 2012 Progress Report,
and 2014 Assessment Report
HTOC will seek re-nomination of one co-chair
in 2012 and two in 2013
It will also seek re-nomination or replacement
of one third of Committee members in 2012,
2013 and 2014
HTOC Manchester Meeting
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New members also being sought to broaden
expertise – military and A5 aviation
2012 Progress Report covered status of halon
alternatives development, continued feedstock
production, halon recovery and recycling in A5
countries, an update on resolution of the
contaminated halon issue, and ICAO status
Report has been published as part of the 2012
TEAP Progress Report
HTOC Manchester Meeting
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2014 HTOC Assessment Report will be
organized along the lines of the 2010 report,
as a consequence, presentations were given
and discussion focused on:
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General overview of halons and the alternatives
Aviation issues and alternatives
Military issues and alternatives
China, Japan and SE Asia issues (banks & recycling)
India, South America, and Middle East issues (banks &
recycling)
Impact of European Union critical uses legislation
HTOC Manchester Meeting
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Updated requirements for member disclosure
statements
Next meeting likely March 2013
TEAP Berlin Meeting
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March 26 to 30, 2012
Decision XXIII/9 - Discussed and worked on
Task Force first draft report
Decision XXIII/10 - Discussed and worked on
Task Force first draft report, in particular TEAP
& TOC re-nomination process and conflict of
interest / disclosure statements
Discussed TOC 2012 Progress reports,
particularly MBTOC minority report and TEAP
response
TEAP Berlin Meeting
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TEAP 2012 Progress report – content, format
etc.
All TEAP reports now available on the Ozone
Secretariat website:
http://ozone.unep.org/new_site/en/index.php
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OEWG meeting, Bangkok, July 23 to 27, 2012
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