Due to significant increases in the number of new passenger cars equipped with air conditioning systems in Europe over the past few years, and the "ozone depleting" nature of the gases used as refrigerants in such systems, the legislators in a number of European countries have begun to turn their attention to these systems as part of their programs to address climate change and global warming. However, to ensure that a common set of requirements are adopted throughout the European Union, the European Commission are proposing to implement a new Directive on air conditioning systems for M1 and N1 category vehicles (passenger cars and light goods vehicles), under the 70/156/EEC type approval regime.
The latest version of the proposed Directive, which was recently adopted by the European Council, would introduce measures to reduce the emissions of fluorinated greenhouse gases in two phases.
The first phase would be to introduce limits on the leakage rates of fluorinated greenhouse gases from air conditioning systems. The proposed limits are 40 grams per year for systems with a single evaporator and 60 grams per year for systems with dual evaporators. The proposed implementation dates for this phase are:
- 01/01/2007 or 12 months after the publication date of the final Directive, whichever is later, for all new types of vehicle, and
- 01/01/2008 or 24 months after the publication date of the final Directive, whichever is later, for all new vehicles.
The second phase would prohibit air conditioning systems which are designed to contain fluorinated greenhouse gases with a global warming potential (GWP) higher than 150. Global warming potential is defined as the climatic warming potential of a fluorinated greenhouse gas relative to that of carbon dioxide, calculated in terms of the 100 year warming potential of one kilogram of the gas relative to one kilogram of carbon dioxide. (Note: The GWP of HFC-134a, which is the refrigerant most commonly used in current air conditioning systems, is 1300.) The proposed implementation dates for this phase are:
- 01/01/2011 for all new types of vehicle, and
- 01/01/2017 for all new vehicles.
This proposed Directive will now be subject to further consideration and discussion by both the European Council and the European Parliament, where a number of Governmental representatives have already expressed their desire to reduce the GWP of the second phase from 150 to 50.