The HFC refrigerants used in fridges absorb infrared radiation, making them potent greenhouse gases

How your fridge is heating up the planet

Many older refrigerators contain potent heat-trapping gases

We all rely on cooling devices that keep us, and the things we consume, cool. Without them our food would quickly go off, heatstroke would likely skyrocket, and the business activities may affect.

During the current pandemic, vaccines will need enormous cold-storage supply chains for them to be manufactured, distributed, and stored until they are administered. Many other life-saving medications – from insulin to antibiotics – also need to be stored in this “cold chain” to prevent them from degrading and becoming useless.

In schools, offices, shops, and homes in many parts of the world, refrigerants also play an important role in the air conditioning systems that keep these buildings comfortable.
The cooling industry is important, but it is also incredibly polluting – accounting for around 10% of global CO2 emissions. That is three times the amount produced by aviation and shipping combined. And as temperatures around the world continue to rise due to climate change, the demand for cooling will increase too.

Refrigerators and air conditioning units certainly use a fair bit of energy, especially when they are running continuously in hot climates. But they also contain chemicals that readily absorb heat from the environment as they turn from being a cool liquid into a gas. As they transition back to liquid, they release the heat into the outside – either outside a building or outside a fridge – before being cycled back to begin the cooling process again.

“Our refrigerators can contain very potent greenhouse gases called hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs for short, and these HFCs are often thousands of times more potent than CO2 when it comes to warming the globe,” says Kristen Taddonio of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, an environmental group.
She says HFCs are in the coolant and insulation used in many refrigerators. They’re not a problem if the fridge is working well. But if the fridge is not recycled properly, the HFCs can escape into the atmosphere.

The most common HFC found in domestic fridges is HFC-134a, which has a global warming potential of 3,400 times that of carbon dioxide. A typical fridge can contain between 0.05kg and 0.25kg of refrigerant, which if it leaks into the environment, the resulting emissions would be equivalent to driving 675km-3,427km (420-2,130 miles) in an average family-sized car.

The Environmental Protection Agency has moved to phase down the manufacture and import of HFCs by 2036. But in the meantime, Taddonio says, “It’s very important that when we are buying new refrigerators or recycling the old refrigerators that we do that responsibly.”

Major global brands such as Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Unilever have set goals to phase out HFCs and already started using alternatives. Ammonia, certain hydrocarbons, and CO2 are the most popular options.
Coca-Cola has pledged that all new cold drinks equipment it uses will be HFC-free and has already switched to using hydrocarbon propane in many of its vending machines. Unilever ice cream brands, including Ben & Jerry’s and Wall’s, also use hydrocarbons in their freezers.

Most supermarkets in Europe now use CO2 in their fridges and freezers after EU regulations to phase out HFCs were introduced in 2015.

But safety concerns are hindering an industry-wide transition towards natural refrigerants. Ammonia, for example, is highly toxic meaning it would present a health risk should it escape through a leak while propane is a flammable gas. But relatively small amounts of these chemicals are needed in the sealed tubes that circulate them around fridges and air conditioning units.

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