Australians buying up big, in electricity guzzling appliances
Rise in appliance sales prompts fears of a climate time bomb The Age, June 19, 2013 Peter Hannam Australia’s rush to acquire airconditioners and fridges is creating a greenhouse gas time bomb, which the Greens and environmental groups say existing regulations, including the carbon tax, are ill equipped to defuse.
The country has at least 45 million cooling devices, up from about 30 million in 2007, with 1 million airconditioners alone sold each year for home use and a similar number in new passenger vehicles.
The vast bulk of the equipment uses fluorocarbon coolants which, though small in weight – about 600 grams per car or more than 1 kilogram per airconditioner – can pack as much as 10,890 times the global warming impact of carbon dioxide when released, either through leakage or when the device is disposed of. The deliberate release of such gases has been illegal since 1989, but with as little as 25 per cent of the gases recovered each year from discarded devices, the rest of the gas is vented with impunity.
The replacement coolants, mostly hydrofluorocarbons (HFC), don’t deplete ozone but are potent greenhouse gases……. http://www.theage.com.au/environment/climate-change/rise-in-appliance-sales-prompts-fears-of-a-climate-time-bomb-20130618-2ogq3.html#ixzz2WhGlp0fs
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