Report from the Commission on availability of training for service personnel regarding the safe handling of climate-friendly technologies replacing or reducing the use of fluorinated greenhouse gases

Regulation (EU) No 517/2014 requires a reduction in the quantities of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) that companies may place on the market in the EU, i.e. through import or production. By reducing the sale of these often highly warming greenhouse gases, their emissions will be reduced significantly over time. The phase-down started in 2015 and will reduce the permitted supply of HFCs: by 2030 the supply of HFCs will be reduced by 79% compared to 2009-2012. In 2030 alone, the phase-down will have resulted in emissions avoided corresponding to 70 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents. This is a two-thirds reduction compared to business as usual. Thus it will make a significant contribution to meeting the Union's climate targets.

When the supply of HFCs is reduced, manufacturers of equipment and products using HFCs today must shift to climate-friendly alternative refrigerants. As technological progress has made large strides in recent years, shifting to suitable and energy-efficient alternative refrigerants with a low global warming potential (GWP) has become feasible in many types of equipment and products. However, many of the alternative refrigerants have properties that may be less familiar to equipment service personnel and the end-user e.g. flammability or high pressure. To enable the safe installation and operation of equipment using alternative refrigerants, appropriate training must become available and taken up by the service personnel on a large scale across the whole of the EU as the phase-down progresses. If this is not the case, it may be putting the transition to alternative refrigerants at risk and result in higher costs than necessary.

In this context, this report responds to Article 21(6) of Regulation (EU) No 517/2014 requiring the Commission to, "no later than 1 January 2017, publish a report examining Union legislation with respect to the training of natural persons for the safe handling of alternative refrigerants to replace or reduce the use of fluorinated greenhouse gases and shall submit, if appropriate, a legislative proposal to the European Parliament and to the Council to amend the relevant Union legislation." This report provides an analysis of the relevant Union legislation. It also assesses the training that is currently available in all Member States, the uptake of that training by service personnel and other current training initiatives that can be used as the basis for the wider promotion of training for alternative refrigerants.

This report was assisted by external technical work undertaken for the Commission including a questionnaire seeking input from Member States' authorities as well as extensive consultations with stakeholders, including deliberations within the Consultation Forum established pursuant to Article 23 of Regulation (EU) No 517/2014.