Global warming is heavily debated in some circles, but governing bodies worldwide have declared it a reality, regardless of personal belief. For the past 30 years, regulatory agencies around the world have been working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, beginning with the 1987 Montreal Protocol, which was the first globally supported legislation to reduce ozone-depleting substances. In 1992, the Kyoto Protocol expanded this reduction agreement. And, in April 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed new regulations under the Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP) that move up the phase-out date for many widely used synthetic refrigerants to 2016.
“The logic behind these changes is that commercially viable alternatives are becoming more readily available in the marketplace,” explains Todd Allsup, vice president of Stellar. “As a result, the government is taking a more proactive role in pushing out these regulations that are having a direct impact on the refrigeration industry.” Moreover, the production and import of synthetic refrigerants like R-22 could be banned in the US as early as 2020, putting facilities that use these systems in an even more precarious position.