Carbon registry methodologies need to cover newer refrigerants

"There are methodologies for refrigerants, but they all cover the older generations of refrigerants that have been illegal for 15 or 20 years in the US."

-Louis Potok (Source)

"We don't have a methodology for destroying HFCs, the next generation of refrigerants that are most widespread now (including my in 'new' HVAC unit and many heat pumps), they're up to 2000x as potent as CO2, are not sequestrable like all other refrigerants, and are very much on the path to large scale stockpiles in 30+ years — just as CFCs and HCFCs that were banned 30 years ago are still a 22 billion ton problem today — if we don't start destroying HFCs now. We have newer refrigerants that are significantly lower GWP and should be transitioning to those for any new units.

There is a methodology for generating carbon credits for HFC reclamation— which isn't a bad first step, but it just delays the problem and is nowhere near sufficient to address the problem, since that work is just taking old HFCs, cleaning them up and putting them into new systems that the research has shown will eventually all leak out over a long-enough time period.

Tradewater is working to push the conversation on HFC destruction, the importance of it, and why there needs to be a methodology, but as far as we know none of the major registries are actively working on this right now."

-Carl Thorne-Thomson

Root Causes

• Carbon credit registries are conservative and slow-moving partly in reaction to challenges and criticisms the sector has faced in recent years
• Limited technical expertise in superpollutant destruction methodologies within major registry organizations

Scope

This bottleneck affects carbon credit methodologies for next-generation refrigerant destruction, impacting the ability to create financial incentives for HFC destruction globally.

Economic Cost

Cost to Solve

• Estimate: $500,000 USD
• Confidence: Low
• Methodology: Rough estimate for the cost to directly fund major registries to research and incorporate the new generation of refrigerants into their list of methodologies. Prior work done by Carbon Containment Lab should reduce overall research burden.

Market Impact

Industries Affected:

• HVAC industry
• Refrigeration industry
• Carbon credit markets
• Climate finance sector

Environmental Impact

Geographic Impact: The GHG implications of refrigerant emissions are distributed globally. China and India have the highest current emissions, and countries with growing populations and projected increased demand for cooling & refrigeration will see increased use of refrigerants.

Climate Impact:

"The impacts of HFCs primarily come from their extreme warming effect. Even in relatively small amounts they contribute significantly to near-term warming as greenhouse gases which are hundreds to thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO2) per unit of mass.

Some highly potent HFCs, such as HFC-23, are still increasing in usage. HFC-23 has a global warming potential (GWP) that is 14,800 times higher than carbon dioxide over 100 years." ¹

Timeframe for Critical Action: There are several "pathways" to hitting 1.5 degrees of warming by 2050; one argument for prioritizing superpollutants like refrigerants is that they help prevent "overshoot" on that pathway (see this CarbonBrief report for a visual guide) and prevent triggering tipping points and negative feedback loops

People Impact

Communities Affected:

• Populations in developing countries with growing cooling demands
• Workers in HVAC and refrigeration industries
• Communities vulnerable to climate change impacts from superpollutant emissions

Startups

Tradewater

• Collecting and destroying high-GWP refrigerants to prevent emissions

Recoolit

• Technology platform for refrigerant lifecycle management

Service Providers

Global Heat Reduction Initiative (GHR)

• Status: Has adopted the updated methodology produced by Carbon Containment Lab
• Focus: Implementing new HFC destruction methodologies

Carbon Containment Lab

• Initiative: published an updated methodology for the new generation of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)
• Focus: Creating carbon credit methodologies for HFC destruction
• Impact: Providing technical foundation for registry adoption

• Source 1: The pathways to meeting the Paris Agreement's 1.5C limit by CarbonBrief
• Source 2: Climate Feedback Loops and Tipping Points by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR)
• Source 3: HFC impacts by the Climate & Clean Air Coalition (CCAR)
• Source 4: The Social Costs of Hydrofluorocarbons and the Large Climate Benefits from their Expedited Phasedown
• Source 5: Estimating the Social Costs of Hydrofluorocarbons, with Lisa Rennels

Contributing Researchers:

• Louis Potok
• Carl Thorne-Thomson