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It was a monumental day for the environmental movement more than 30 years ago when all 198 countries in the world agreed for the first and only time. They signed the Montreal Protocol and made a pact to phase out a range of chemicals that deplete the Earth’s ozone layer. Chief among these were the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons used by the refrigeration and refrigeration industry. Alternatives, such as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), were quickly found.
But in recent years, scientists have come to realize that the 1987 Montreal Protocol could trade an immediate problem for a long-term problem. Although HFCs do not cause the same damage to the ozone layer as CFCs, the chemicals have a warming potential hundreds to thousands of times greater than CO2— make their growing worldwide use a cause for concern.
The Industrial Revolution of the 20th century saw a major boom in the air conditioning and refrigeration industry in Europe and North America. As developing countries boost their economies, countries such as China, India and Nigeria are seeing the demand for these devices soar.
According to a 2020 report from the United Nations Environment Programme, there are currently about 3.6 billion refrigeration devices in use — for cooling buildings and cooling food and other items such as medicines; The number is expected to rise to 9.5 billion by 2050. Plus, that figure would be a whopping 14 billion if everyone who needed refrigeration could buy it, according to one estimate.
Known magazine spoke with Shelie Miller, an environmental engineer at the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability. Miller co-authored an article in the 2021 Environmental and Resources Annual Review which explored the rising global demand for refrigeration and refrigeration, its effects on greenhouse gas emissions, and potential solutions. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
For many people, this may sound like a strange topic. Why should we worry about the refrigeration and refrigeration industry?
When people think about the environmental impacts that need to be addressed, it is rare for people to think about refrigeration services. But it’s an incredibly important issue that isn’t really being addressed. “Cooling service” is a very broad category that refers to temperature-controlled environments. And it intersects the construction, transportation and food sectors. It has a huge impact when you consider the total global energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
And the industry will see exponential growth in developing countries. So it is important that we are aware of the total impact of the industry.
How does the refrigeration and refrigeration industry affect the environment?
Cooling an environment, be it a household refrigerator or an air conditioner, requires an enormous amount of energy. Because our electricity networks rely heavily on fossil fuels, any energy consumption aimed at lowering temperatures also emits greenhouse gases. So much of the environmental impact is simply the consumption of an incredible amount of energy, based largely on fossil fuels.
When we talk about cold room technology, something called refrigerants is also needed. Refrigerants are chemicals used to lower temperatures and conventional refrigerants often have a high global warming potential.
So even though we use a relatively small amount of refrigerants, the impact of refrigerants when they leak into the atmosphere ultimately has a big impact on the climate.
We once used refrigerants like CFCs that had a devastating impact on the ozone layer. So we banned them and introduced new chemicals. Have we only had trading problems here?
One of the great environmental successes has been the ban on certain chemicals that deplete the ozone layer. As you mentioned, one of the major environmental treaties, the Montreal Protocol, banned the use of ozone-depleting chemicals in the refrigerant industry. As a replacement, we came up with hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs. And that was a great and effective way to reduce ozone depletion, but at the cost of warming.
So we traded the potential for ozone depletion for high greenhouse gas emissions. In another international agreement, called the Kigali Amendment, countries are trying to address the problems of greenhouse gas emissions with refrigerants. So we are now trying to have alternative refrigerants that also have a lower global warming potential.
