IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jenvss/v5y2015i2p176-186.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The importance of finding the path forward to climate-safe refrigeration and air conditioning: thinking outside the box and without limits

Author

Listed:
  • Stephen Andersen
  • Nancy Sherman

Abstract

Recently, an influential segment of the refrigeration and air conditioning engineering community has been making the provocative case that (1) every refrigerant is already identified, (2) none of the identified refrigerants satisfy the environmental criteria for stratospheric ozone and climate protection, and (3) every selection of refrigerant represents a trade-off in either safety, economy, ozone depletion, greenhouse gas emissions, and/or energy efficiency. The hypothesis is that science is at a dead end and that it will be necessary to compromise safety, climate, or cost. In some cases, the hypothesis suggests that society can only hope to trade one environmental problem for another. This essay disputes the hypothesis that all refrigerants have been identified and makes the case that chemists and engineers will continue to innovate in refrigerant design and application. It takes a fresh look at the evolution of refrigeration and air conditioning, makes the case that chemists are continuing to innovate in refrigerant design, and explores how engineers are just beginning to innovate in the integration of refrigerants and application technology. It describes the engineering solutions that make flammable and toxic refrigerants safe to use; new technologies on the verge of outperforming historic refrigerant cooling; integrated heating and cooling functions that save the climate and money; district cooling solutions coming into the marketplace; and new architectural and city planning strategies that can bypass the dependence on air conditioning with a goal of carbon-neutral or even carbon-sequestering living and work spaces. In conclusion, this essay recommends that governments redouble their efforts to support the commercialization of new refrigerants and not-in-kind alternatives to refrigeration and air conditioning and that stakeholders organize a “pathfinder” exercise to find the way forward. Copyright AESS 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen Andersen & Nancy Sherman, 2015. "The importance of finding the path forward to climate-safe refrigeration and air conditioning: thinking outside the box and without limits," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(2), pages 176-186, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:jenvss:v:5:y:2015:i:2:p:176-186
    DOI: 10.1007/s13412-015-0230-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s13412-015-0230-3
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s13412-015-0230-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brian Gareau, 2010. "A critical review of the successful CFC phase-out versus the delayed methyl bromide phase-out in the Montreal Protocol," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 10(3), pages 209-231, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tareq K. Al-Awad & Motasem N. Saidan & Brian J. Gareau, 2018. "Halon management and ozone-depleting substances control in Jordan," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 391-408, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Agni Kalfagianni & Oran R. Young, 2022. "The politics of multilateral environmental agreements lessons from 20 years of INEA," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 245-262, June.
    2. Brian J. Gareau & Xiaorui Huang & Tara Pisani Gareau & Sandra DiDonato, 2020. "The strength of green ties: Massachusetts cranberry grower social networks and effects on climate change attitudes and action," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 162(3), pages 1613-1636, October.
    3. Stephen Andersen, 2015. "Lessons from the stratospheric ozone layer protection for climate," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(2), pages 143-162, June.
    4. Michel Damian, 2014. "La politique climatique change enfin de paradigme," Post-Print halshs-00969308, HAL.
    5. Riikka Sievänen & John Sumelius & K. Islam & Mila Sell, 2013. "From struggle in responsible investment to potential to improve global environmental governance through UN PRI," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 197-217, May.
    6. Brian Gareau, 2015. "Lessons from the Montreal Protocol delay in phasing out methyl bromide," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(2), pages 163-168, June.
    7. Tareq K. Al-Awad & Motasem N. Saidan & Brian J. Gareau, 2018. "Halon management and ozone-depleting substances control in Jordan," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 391-408, June.
    8. Kyuhong Jung & Donghoon Ro & Young-Kwon Park, 2020. "Estimation, and Framework Proposal of Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Fluorinated Substitutes for Ozone-Depleting Substances by Application Area in the Republic of Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-11, August.
    9. Jennifer Cole & Adam Eskdale & Jonathan D. Paul, 2022. "Tackling AMR: A Call for a(n Even) More Integrated and Transdisciplinary Approach between Planetary Health and Earth Scientists," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-11, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jenvss:v:5:y:2015:i:2:p:176-186. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.