Dr Olena Matukhno began her research work at the German Environment Agency (UBA) on 1 February 2024. Her work focuses on compliance with national climate targets in the Ukrainian iron and steel industry through decarbonisation and emissions trading measures once the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine has ended.
Transport of refrigerated and chilled products like food is on the rise worldwide. Whether goods are transported on the road, by train or ship, the cooling temperatures must be maintained exactly. Many transport refrigeration units contain fluorinated refrigerants acting as greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These substances need to be replaced by refrigerants having less impact on the climate.
An EU directive has banned the use of fluorinated greenhouse gases with global warming potential exceeding 150 in mobile air conditioning systems since January 2011. CO2 used as a refrigerant is an alternative. An UBA official car had used a CO2 mobile air conditioning system from 2009 to 2017. Since October 2016, first cars with CO2 air conditioning systems have been offered.
An EU directive bans the use of fluorinated greenhouse gases with global warming potential exceeding 150 for mobile air conditioning systems in motor vehicles since January 2011. Thus the current refrigerant tetrafluoroethane (R134a) has to be replaced. Tests in laboratory and car showed that the new refrigerant 1234yf selected by car industry can lead to fires.
Global mean surface air temperature has risen gradually since the age of industrialisation. It is now accepted as scientifically proven that we humans are responsible for a significant part of this increase. Hence one speaks of anthropogenic, or man-made, climate change.
Climate is described in terms of mean values, characteristic extreme values, and frequency distributions of meteorological parameters such as air pressure, wind, temperature, cloud cover, and precipitation over a certain period of time and larger area.
