Commentary: Slowing of Arctic meltdown shows we’re not helpless in the face of damage to planet

Hydrocarbon pollutants, to be sure, are more inextricably woven into the global economy than F-gases, which are used in a handful of niche applications in select industries. And F-gases haven’t been eliminated.

Indeed, their importance as refrigerants and insulators means that consumption is set to grow rapidly as our planet warms and we shift to less carbon-intensive technologies.

Air conditioners and heat pumps consume F-gases voraciously, as do electrical transformers, wind turbines, and semiconductor plants.

On current trends, emissions might increase from the equivalent of 700 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2005 to 3.7 billion tonnes in 2050, according to one 2017 study – equivalent to about one-tenth of current CO2 pollution.

REPLACING F-GASES WITH OLD-SCHOOL SUBSTITUTES

The solution to that may be somewhat counterintuitive.

While the wide range of F-gases provides plenty of compounds with a vastly smaller warming effect (such as the R1234 that’s rapidly becoming universal in car air conditioners, and heats the atmosphere less than carbon dioxide), many of the most attractive alternatives are more old-school chemicals. 

Carbon dioxide itself may be the favoured medium in refrigerated trucks and shipping containers, along with propane and butane in-home air conditioners and ammonia in industrial cooling systems, according to a 2017 study.