Educational institutions

When international refrigeration, AC, ventilation and heat pump experts flock to Exhibition Centre Nuremberg from 11 to 13 October 2022, it will be the first reunion of this kind since 2018. Chillventa, the world’s leading trade fair for refrigeration technology, brings together the specialists and leading lights of the sector from all around the globe. In the eight exhibition halls, Chillventa CONGRESS on 10 October, and numerous events from the supporting programme, you will finally get the chance to make business contacts face-to-face again, discover trends and interesting solutions, and refresh your knowledge. The number of registrations received so far is excellent. The professional community can look forward to an exciting event with a first-class supporting and congress programme.

Research by BSRIA Worldwide Market Intelligence highlights the effect of inflation and the supply chain crisis on the air conditioning market. A generalised supply chain crisis is causing product shortages and longer lead times in commercial AC. This, combined with the demand surge, is generating an inflationary pressure and prices are rising in all the product categories. However, on the demand side, growth is expected to be steady throughout 2022. Exceptionally hot weather in the West of the US boosted sales in 2021.

The dynamic in the UK has changed significantly since the pandemic, where it was still considered a commercially driven market, now the majority of multi-splits are sold into domestic. Single-splits remain mostly commercially driven, but here too the share of domestic has increased significantly.

The European FluoroCarbons Technical Committee (EFCTC), which represents refrigerant suppliers, has called for the EU to include a Europe-wide penalty regime in its proposals for policing F-Gas imports.

The EU-funded project Refrigerants, Naturally! RefNat4LIFE has recently launched two free online courses – also known as massive online open courses (MOOC) – on natural refrigerants to support store owners’ and technicians’ transition away from f-gases.

In the Soft Launch on July 21 2022, the Climate and Ozone Protection Alliance will be introduced, followed by a panel discussion with various speakers sharing their views on the relevance of a global shift to sustainable refrigerant management. Speakers include representatives from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, the COPA Secretariat, UNIDO, UNDP, government, private sector, academia and civil society.

The U.K. Climate Change Committee (CCC) has called for the U.K. government to “match or exceed” the level of increased ambition that will be adopted following the revision of the EU F-gas Regulation.

EFCTC says it now expects other EU countries to start using EU Single Window Environment for Customs to share vital information on refrigerant imports and F-Gas quotas.

The latest IIR Informatory Note outlines the options available for low-GWP refrigerants and their respective performance. It provides a series of recommendations on refrigerant selection criteria, research priorities and personnel training.

On the 15th of June, 2022 the Tonga – [Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change and Communications (MEIDECC)], Department of Climate Change hosted a meeting with the advisory committee for ozone layer protection. The objectives of the meeting is to oversee Tonga’s obligations to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer as well as ensuring that all implemented and planned activities of the National Ozone Unit (NOU) is aligned with the provisions of the Ozone Layer Protection Act 2021.

Laura Berón, Coordinator of the National Ozone Unit, and Graciela Garau, Technical Consultant at the National Ozone Unit of Argentina, on the technician training and certification programme in Argentina.

UNDP provides refrigeration and air conditioning technicians with modern equipment

Congratulations to the latest countries which have ratified the Kigali Amendment.

UN Environment Programme (UNEP) OzonAction organized a side event on “Women in Cooling – Challenges and Opportunities” on 11 July during the forty-fourth meeting of the Open-ended Working Group of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol. This forum, the first of its kind, initiated a discussion about the context of women in cooling worldwide including the challenges they face in their careers, previewed an important global survey on this subject, and presented a new global initiative to support opportunities for women, more engagement and visibility within the cooling sector. The side event is part of a broader discussion that UNEP OzonAction is having both internally and with its partners on how to further incorporate gender mainstreaming into the work of the Montreal Protocol. The meeting was well attended by 93 participants (female 55, male 38).

The U.S. supermarket sector continues to “inexcusably lag behind European counterparts,” says the Environmental Investigation Agency’s (EIA), an international NGO, based on analysis conducted for its latest Climate-Friendly Supermarket Scorecard.

The cold chain must be sustainable everywhere to be able to meet the Millennium’s targets indeed.

Global HVAC&R wholesaler and manufacturer Beijer Ref has partnered with Superior Training Centre, an Australian education provider, to offer Australia’s only nationally accredited CO₂ (R744) training course at the newly opened Beijer Ref Academy in Sydney.

The Centre for Energy Technology (ZET) at the University of Bayreuth has handed over a CO₂-powered air conditioning system to the Kulmbach Vocational School Centre (BSZ) for use in its operations and teaching.

Green group the EIA and refrigerant producers body EFCTC have both called for similar measures to thwart the illegal trade in F-gases in Europe.

Twenty-seven people have been arrested and 110 tonnes of refrigerant seized in an operation which has seen the dismantling of a major criminal organisation in Spain.