Alliance Outlines CCAC Action Plan at UN Climate Summit

NEW YORK, Sept. 23, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Alliance for Responsible Atmospheric Policy, the leading coalition of US companies producing and using hydrofluorcarbons (HFCs), today presented the four-point action plan of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) to reduce global HFC greenhouse gas emissions.  The presentation was made as part of the CCAC High Level Assembly meeting as well as at the UN Secretary-General's Climate Summit in New York City. The presentations were made by Kevin Fay, Executive Director of the Alliance for Responsible Atmospheric Policy along with Mike Lamach, Chairman and CEO of Ingersoll Rand, and John Mandyck, Chief Sustainability Officer for United Technologies Building and Industrial Systems, speaking to the formation of the Global Food Cold Chain Council.

The CCAC action plan consists of support for beginning negotiations in 2014 of an amendment to phase down the production and consumption of HFCs under the Montreal Protocol, the promotion of gradual public procurement of climate-friendly low-global warming potential alternatives to HFCs when feasible and support for private-sector organized efforts, including a Global Refrigerant Management Initiative on HFCs in servicing and a Global Food Cold Chain Council to reduce HFC emissions and increase efficiency in the cold food supply chain.

"Collectively, these policy efforts and initiatives have the potential to reduce the equivalent of more than 90 Gigatons of CO2equivalent by 2050, or more than two years of global greenhouse gas emissions," said Alliance Executive Director Kevin Fay. "The hallmark of these activities is that they will also continue the tradition of government, NGO, and industry cooperation under the Montreal Protocol that has made that treaty one of the most effective global environment agreements in history."

A substantial number of CCAC partners and non-partners, including nation-states, intergovernmental organizations, nongovernmental organizations, civil society organizations and private sector entities, have pledged their support for this action plan. The announcement of the four-point plan at the Climate Summit is expected to grow the number of signatories.

The Alliance and other private sector partners participated last week in an HFC Industry Leadership Roundtable at the White House. At that meeting, Alliance member companies and others announced their voluntary commitments to introduce new low- global warming potential (GWP) compounds and technologies to replace the high-GWP compounds and technologies currently in use, and to continue to improve energy efficiency as well. The Alliance pledged to take actions and support policies to reduce global HFC emissions by 80 percent by 2050. The industry leaders advocated for the North American-proposed amendment to the Montreal Protocol as the best means of achieving a global phase-down of HFCs while increasing research and development of the next generation of refrigerants.

About the Alliance for Responsible Atmospheric Policy
The Alliance is an industry coalition organized in 1980 to address the issue of stratospheric ozone depletion and the production and use of fluorocarbon compounds. The organization is composed of manufacturers and businesses, including their trade associations that rely on HCFCs and HFCs. According to a recent study, the US fluorocarbon using and producing industries contribute more than $158 billion annually in goods and services to the US economy, and provide employment to more than 700,000 individuals with an industry-wide payroll of more than $32 billion. Today, the Alliance coordinates industry participation in the development of reasonable international and government policies at the nexus of ozone protection and climate change.

About CCAC
The Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Live Climate Pollutants is a partnership of governments, intergovernmental organizations, representatives of the private sector, the environment community, and other members of civil society. The coalition seeks to supplement global mitigation measures to address the contributions of methane, black carbon and HFCs to climate change.

SOURCE Alliance for Responsible Atmospheric Policy