Environmental Audit Committee publishes report on UK Progress on Reducing F-gas Emissions

The Environmental Audit Committee has today published its report, UK Progress on Reducing F-gas Emissions. The report calls on the Government to enforce existing F-gas regulations and use its procurement power to promote products with a lower global warming impact.

It has also called on the NHS and medical companies to reduce the production and use of Metered Dose Inhalers, establish a recycling system for them, and legislate to avoid them going to landfill. The report examines the issues surrounding the regulatory impact of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU’s F-gas regime, and the knock-on effect issues such as F-Gas regulation could have on multilateral international agreements (where both the UK and EU are signatories), and on future trade deals.

Mary Creagh MP, Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, said:

“Global warming is a clear and present danger and the UK should be doing all it can to bend the curve of global temperature rises. Some F-gases make a much bigger contribution to global warming, and are found in everyday items such as inhalers, fridges, and air conditioning units.”

“At present, the Government is failing to enforce the regulations surrounding F-Gas emissions, particularly on car air conditioning units, while the NHS remains reliant on F-gas fuelled inhalers despite less damaging alternatives being available and widely used in other European countries.

“The Government, the NHS, manufacturers and medical companies should be doing much more to address F-gas emissions. International cooperation on removing F-gas emissions could have hugely beneficial consequences for future generations.”

The full report can be found here

Details of evidence submitted to the inquiry can be found here

Details about the Environmental Audit Committee can be found here

25-04-2018