A European Union advisory body, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), has released its opinion on the draft EU F-gas Regulation in which the committee calls for stricter measures than those proposed by the European Commission.

In its opinion, the EESC sees the revision of the regulation as an opportunity to “maintain the global EU leadership in climate action.”

Specifically, the EESC addresses the effectiveness of bans, considering them as a win-win-win provision that send a “clear message to the market, [are] administratively easy to implement, and face a low risk of circumvention.” In its opinion, the EESC calls for a ban of refrigerants with GWPs over five for heat pumps, chillers, room ACs and refrigeration equipment.

The EESC also “strongly recommends combining REPower EU ambition with the F-gas phase-out, aiming for refrigerants with the lowest possible GWP, especially in the field of heat pumps.” The committee deems the “fears of market bottlenecks in the sector unfounded,” stating that the “increased production capacity of the industry … will be mostly based on natural refrigerants.” This deployment, the EESC believes, is “a clear opportunity to make this an exemplary case in setting global green standards.”

ATMOsphere, a CCC member, has recently released a report on the natural-refrigerant-based domestic heat pump market in Europe, finding that the industry is ready to deliver.

The advisory body also suggests increasing the fee for the sale of HFC quotas, earmarking them “to boost customs controls at Member State level, to help with the adoption of low-GWP alternatives and to provide sufficient training to the installers of the equipment concerned.”