Refrigeration/air conditioning applications are growing in the United States as well as worldwide, since they are critical contributors to the health, comfort, and welfare of humanity. However, the use of refrigerants have consequences for the environment if the refrigerants are not properly selected and managed throughout their lifecycle. Refrigerant manufacturers, contractors, and users are frequently falsely accused of mismanagement and abuse of refrigerants. This report intends to lay the groundwork for a future Refrigerant Management Implementation Plan. Proper cradle to grave management is necessary to minimize the environmental impact and to ensure that suitable refrigerants are used by the HVAC&R industry to meet growing demand.

In the USA, every household has at least one refrigerator; over 90% have A/C systems. Nearly all passenger vehicles and commercial trucks are equipped with air-conditioning. There are over 35,000 commercial refrigeration systems, and thousands of mobile refrigeration systems on the roads. In addition, reefer ships, and thousands of commercial chillers and heat pumps are used in commercial, industrial and institutional applications. All of these applications utilize refrigerants. Direct refrigerant emissions are estimated by the EPA to represent about 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The Indirect Effect is overall a larger portion of Climate Change Emissions than the Direct Effect, and is minimized by the use of the available refrigerant that permits the most efficient equipment design possible. Therefore, for all but high emission applications, the equipment and system efficiency will have a greater bearing on environmental impact than the GWP of the particular refrigerant used. Nevertheless, even if the lowest GWP refrigerants and/or most efficient equipment technologies are used, refrigerant releases to the environment should be minimized in order to minimize the total environmental impact. It is to this objective that the Committee directs its work.