Climate-friendly cooling to help ease global warming

Date:
October 6, 2020
Source:
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
Summary:
A new study shows that coordinated international action on energy-
efficient, climate-friendly cooling could avoid as much as 600
billion tons CO2 equivalent of greenhouse gas emissions in this
century.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A new IIASA-led study shows that coordinated international action on
energy- efficient, climate-friendly cooling could avoid as much as 600
billion tonnes CO2 equivalent of greenhouse gas emissions in this century.


========================================================================== Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are mainly used for cooling and
refrigeration. While they were originally developed to replace
ozone-depleting substances that are being phased out under the Montreal Protocol, many HFCs are potent greenhouse gases with a global warming
potential up to 12,400 times that of CO2 over a 100-year period.

The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, which entered into
force in 2019, aims to phase down the consumption of HFCs by 2050. While previous agreements have resulted in improvements in the design and energy performance of, for instance, cooling equipment, the Kigali Amendment is
the first to include maintaining and/or enhancing the energy efficiency
of cooling technologies as an explicit goal. According to the authors of
the study, which has been published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry
and Physics, there is however currently limited understanding of the
potential future impacts of the Kigali Agreement on global warming
and possible co-benefits from savings in electricity. The study is the
first to try to quantify the overall effects of the Agreement on both greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions.

The researchers developed a range of long-term scenarios for HFC emissions under varying degrees of stringency in climate policy and also assessed
co- benefits in the form of electricity savings and associated reductions
in emissions. The results indicate that, due to technical opportunities to improve energy efficiency in cooling technologies, there is potential for significant electricity savings under a well-managed phase-down of HFCs.

"Our results show that the global cumulative HFC emissions from
refrigerant use in cooling technologies would have been over 360 billion
tonnes CO2 equivalent between 2018 and 2100 in the pre-Kigali baseline scenario. In addition, indirect CO2 emissions from energy production of electricity used in cooling equipment will be approximately the same order
of magnitude if the world continues along its present path, without any additional changes in energy policy," explains IIASA researcher Pallav
Purohit, who led the study.

"We found that if technical energy efficiency improvements are fully implemented, the resulting electricity savings could exceed 20% of
future global electricity consumption, while the corresponding figure
for economic energy efficiency improvements would be about 15%," adds
study coauthor and senior IIASA researcher Lena Ho"glund-Isaksson.

The researchers say that the combined effect of HFC phase-down,
improvement of energy efficiency of stationary cooling technologies,
and future changes in the electricity generation fuel mix would prevent
between 411 and 631 billion tonnes CO2 equivalent of greenhouse gas
emissions between 2018 and 2100, thereby making a significant contribution towards keeping the global temperature rise below 2DEGC. Transitioning
to high efficiency cooling can therefore double the climate mitigation
effects of the HFC phase-down under the Kigali Amendment, while also
delivering economic, health, and development benefits.

The findings further show that reduced electricity consumption could
mean lower air pollution emissions in the power sector, estimated at
about 5 to 10% for sulfur dioxide, 8 to 16% for nitrogen oxides (NOx),
and 4 to 9% for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions compared with
a pre-Kigali baseline.

"To be consistent with 1.5DEGC scenarios, by 2050 HFCs should be reduced
by between 70 and 80% compared to 2010 levels. According to the Kigali Amendment and Maximum Technically Feasible Reduction (MTFR) scenarios we analyzed, we could achieve 92.5% and 99.5% reductions in 2050 compared
to 2010 levels, respectively. This means that both scenarios surpass
the 1.5 DEGC threshold. If carefully addressed during the transition
to alternatives that have the potential to relieve global warming,
improvement potentials for energy efficiency in cooling technologies
are extensive and can bring significant electricity savings," Purohit concludes.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by International_Institute_for_Applied_Systems_Analysis.

Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Pallav Purohit, Lena Ho"glund-Isaksson, John Dulac, Nihar Shah,
Max Wei,
Peter Rafaj, Wolfgang Scho"pp. Electricity savings and
greenhouse gas emission reductions from global phase-down of
hydrofluorocarbons.

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 2020; 20 (19): 11305 DOI:
10.5194/acp- 20-11305-2020 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201006114223.htm

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