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Last changed 19/02/2010
Delegates at the UN climate talks in Bonn in early June had the opportunity to book a car which is unique in the world. Equipped with an innovative CO2 air conditioning systemR744 is the name of CO2 (carbon dioxide) when used as refrigerant, R stands for refrigerant, it was made available for the car pool serving this high-level international meeting. Emissions from the new CO2 mobile air conditioning (MAC) system are lower than those of a vehicle with a conventional MAC unit.
From 1 to 12 June 2009, 5000 delegates from 182 countries met for the Bonn Climate Change Talks 2009 to prepare the international climate change conference due to be held in December 2009 in Copenhagen for a post-Kyoto global climate protection agreement.
The VW Touran, a vehicle belonging to the fleet of the Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt, UBA), was used for necessary transportation at the climate talks, supporting vehicles from the fleet of the German Environment Ministry (BMU).
Measurements carried out in a BMU-sponsored research project demonstrate the efficiency of CO2 as refrigerant in MAC systems. The CO2 air conditioning system has very good cooling performance and is energy efficient – in normal European summers the energy consumption of the CO2 system is even lower than that of a standard MAC system using R 134a. Measurements carried out by the General German Automobile Association (ADAC) confirm this result.
The refrigerant commonly used today in MAC systems for passenger cars is tetrafluroethane (R134a), a fluorinated greenhouse gas. In 2007, cars in Germany alone emitted 2480 tonnes of tetrafluoroethane (R134a). This translates into 3.2 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents – as much as the annual CO2 emissions of 1.3 million passenger cars. CO2 as refrigerant in MAC systems for passenger cars is a climate-friendly alternative to R134a, the refrigerant commonly used to date. CO2 is 1300 times less harmful to the climate than R134a. CO2 has good cooling performance, is non-combustible, does not generate any decomposition products and is globally available at low cost.
Through Directive 2006/40/EC the EU decided to only allow refrigerants with a low global warming potential to be used in new MAC systems. From 2011, R134a will be prohibited for use in newly approved vehicle types and from 2017, the ban will apply to MAC systems in all new vehicles. Although the conversion deadline is drawing ever closer, automobile manufacturers are hesitant in deciding to use the more environmentally friendly CO2 for car air conditioning systems.