The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a landmark rulemaking today, which reduces the domestic production allowances for HCFC-22 at the lowest level ever and proposes a complete phase-out within five years. HCFCs, or hydrochlorofluorocarbons, are a class of refrigerants that are damaging to the ozone layer, and contribute to global warming.

“We congratulate EPA for adopting the most environment friendly HCFC-22 allocation option,” said Mark W. Roberts, International Policy Advisor at the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). “The effect of the reduced allocations proposed by EPA will be a big step toward restoring the ozone layer and protecting the global climate by incentivizing companies to increase leak prevention, HCFC-22 recovery, and recycling due to the reducing stocks of virgin HCFCs.”

This rule has significant implications because not only does it reduce emissions from virgin production— leakage and stockpiles of this gas—but also because it encourages state-of-the-art leak detection, maintenance, and recycling, recovery and reuse of HCFCs. Additionally, this rule creates incentive for commercial consumers to convert outdated equipment that still uses HCFCs to more energy efficient equipment using low global warming potential (GWP) alternatives that do not damage the ozone layer. If significant amounts of stockpile continue to flood the market, it would discourage transitions to new, more climate friendly alternatives, and instead support the use of cheap ozone and climate destroying gases, like HCFC-22.

“The President’s Climate Action Plan singles out high global warming potential refrigerants as one of the main focuses of the Administration’s objective to reduce U.S. carbon emissions. By lowering the allocated production and consumption of the high-GWP HCFCs, the EPA is effectively supporting the President’s Climate Action Plan,” said Avipsa Mahapatra, International Climate Policy Analyst at EIA. “It will be important for the EPA to adopt additional measures, however, to require supermarkets and other consumers of outdated HCFC technologies to move to climate friendly gases that further bolster these actions.”