US firms hit out at EU plans to ban ozone-damaging chemicals

Date: 30/09/1999

By Peter Chapman

US BUSINESS chiefs will turn up the heat on the Union next month over planned new rules to govern the use of chemicals in fridges and air-conditioning systems which damage the ozone layer.

But European industry is divided over the proposals, with some firms supporting the Americans' stance while others have thrown their weight behind the plan.

Industry sources say the European Commission's proposals will be high on the agenda when chief executives gather for a Transatlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) meeting in Berlin.

Under the plan, the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HCFCs) in refrigerators would be phased out by 2001 and the foam used in air-conditioning units by 2004. This has sparked protests from industry groups in the US, including the Washington-based Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute and leading firms such as General Electric Corp, and some specialist EU-based manufactures.

Concern over the proposals centres on the plan to ban HCFCs in refrigerators from 2001, but phase out their use in airconditioning and heat-pump equipment more gradually between 2001 and 2004, depending on individual products' specifications.

"Industry wants the phase-out date to be the same for all these products - 2004," said a source, who added that firms in the sector were concerned that suitable replacements would not be available in time if EU governments agreed to phase out some products by early 2001.

"The foam industry plans to move to other replacement products in 2004."

But they would not want HCFCs banned at an earlier stage, leaving them with a time gap," said an expert at the European Committee for the Responsible Application of Refrigerants.

Experts argue that these chemicals - which are still used in some makes of household refrigerators, 50% of larger industrial units and air-conditioning systems - are far less harmful than the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) which have already been outlawed. But environmental campaigners say that while HCFCs only have 20% of the impact of CFCs, they still have huge potential to harm the Earth's ozone layer if produced in large quantities.

The Commission insists that its proposals "maintain the EU's tradition of environmental leadership." But critics claim the institution's approach goes beyond the terms of the 'Montreal Protocol' agreed by world governments in 1997. They also warn that the planned measures could pose a technical barrier to trade with the US, which has adopted a different interpretation of the protocol based on the chemicals themselves rather than their uses.

However, Europe's biggest 'white goods' firm Electrolux is supporting the plan to phase out the two substances and claims that US firms are simply trying to maintain the status quo.

The company's EU affairs manager Victor Sundberg this week urged the Union to ignore the lobbying onslaught. He said Electrolux had already changed its manufacturing process to comply with the proposed new rules, adding: "Some firms say this cannot be done, but others like ourselves say they are already meeting them. Basically, the Americans do not like the fact that the EU is going ahead with the regulation.

"But we do not agree and if the TABD makes a statement on this, they should make sure they do so only on behalf of sectors where we are not present."