Debate: Ozone depleting substances - Fluorinated gases regulation
Date: MONDAY, 15 JANUARY 2024
Speaker: Nicolas Schmit
Language: EN

On F-gases, the new rules before you today will strongly reduce F-gas emissions. This high ambition is great news in view of our climate targets for 2030 and reaching climate neutrality by 2050. In particular, the use of the most important group of F-gases, the HFCs, will be phased out by 2050, and we will strongly reduce other relevant F-gases such as SF6, the strongest known greenhouse gas. This will transform a number of sectors of our economy, including the air conditioning and heat pump sector, the electricity sector using electrical switchgear and the medical sector of asthma sprays, so that they are no longer depending on the highly-warming greenhouse gases. I perfectly join what has been said on how you can combine Europe's competitiveness, industrial competitiveness by improving our environmental approach and also by achieving our objectives. As Parliament demanded, the agreed review ensures that a number of sectors where alternatives are feasible will eventually completely avoid the use of substances that may produce PFAS in the medium term. This is the case of smaller heat pumps. Business as usual is no longer possible, and the European industry has an opportunity to become the first to supply these low-carbon and climate-neutral solutions globally. Already today, we are witnessing that the offer of fully climate-friendly heat pumps and switchgear on the EU market is increasing by the day, and many of these types of equipment are produced here in Europe, with a number of large new plants that have opened in recent months. Not least, this transition will bring significant financial benefits for citizens to with, for instance, more energy savings and less operation costs for many types of equipment, including heat pumps. Turning to the ozone-depleting substances regulation. Going ahead with the successful phase out of ozone-depleting substances is also essential for our climate agenda. Thanks to the Montreal Protocol, we can expect that the ozone hole will recover by approximately 2070 and prevent a major impact in global warming. Up to one degree of climate warming will be prevented by mid-century because of the global elimination of ozone-depleting substances. But these effects are ensured only if there is no backsliding. The EU must continue to lead by example and inspire others in the world to be ambitious. The EU will now be able to capture the large potential to save emissions from old insulation foams in houses for renovation or demolition, a measure that will certainly stimulate the recycling sector. But the compromise goes further, thanks to your efforts, in particular regarding the more hands-on approach to reduce feedstock use in chemical production, the main remaining use of ozone-depleting substances in the EU. In summary, on both files, the political agreement is excellent, representing a key step forward towards limiting global temperature increase and respecting the Paris Agreement. For this reason, I ask all distinguished Members here today to strongly endorse these compromises so that we can move on to implementation and make sure these emissions savings and other benefits can be achieved as quickly as possible.