The Ulster County Climate Smart Committee, Sustainable Hudson Valley and the Hudson Valley Climate Solutions Network are sponsoring a free introductory forum on Refrigerant Management for elected officials, municipal staff and other stakeholders on Tuesday, February 26 from 6 to 7:30 pm in the Legislative Chambers of the Ulster County Office Building at 244 Fair Street in Kingston.
Surprisingly, Refrigerant Management is ranked the #1 climate solution action and one of the hardest to implement. This includes managing refrigerants in a wide variety of equipment including building and vehicle air conditioners, refrigerators, chillers, HVAC systems, dehumidifiers and more. If not managed properly, refrigerants can be a major climate problem.
In Paul Hawken’s NY Times best seller “Drawdown”, he highlights the importance of managing refrigerants.
* Refrigerants found in refrigerators, air-conditioners, and other equipment were once responsible for seriously depleting the ozone layer. In 1987 the Montreal Protocol phased out Freon and other chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), however hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and other replacement chemicals have 1,000 to 9,000 times greater capacity to warm the atmosphere than carbon dioxide
* The 2016 Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol maps an international plan that will globally phase out refrigerants that are intense greenhouse gases by 2028
* Before the Kigali Amendment is fully implemented, we have an important challenge to capture as many of the legacy refrigerants as possible
* Once captured, refrigerants can be purified for reuse or transformed into safer chemicals
* 90% of refrigerant emissions from residential appliances happen at end of life — an important place to start capturing refrigerants
This free event is for elected officials and municipal staff, people who sell, repair or recycle these items, and for other interested parties but space is limited, so please pre-register at www.surveymonkey.com/r/RefrigerantForum
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