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Playing Dominoes. Presentation By: Janos Mat é Greenpeace International. If one factor is changed, all others are affected: basic axiom of ecology and human affairs. Action Reaction Interaction. Weather panic, the new norm: June, 2011.
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Playing Dominoes Presentation By: Janos Maté Greenpeace International
If one factor is changed, all others are affected: basic axiom of ecology and human affairs Action Reaction Interaction
Weather panic, the new norm: June, 2011 • We are living in a vastly different world today than we did 25 years ago when the Montreal Protocol was born. • The pessimist says “things can’t get any worse”. The optimist says “yes they can”.
Climate tipping points – points of no return “Climate is nearing dangerous tipping points… elements of a ‘perfect storm’, a global cataclysm, are assembled…time is running out”-Dr. James Hansen (2008), NASA Climate tipping points are reached when positive feedback loops kick in, so that subsequent climate events exacerbate global warming and push it beyond human capacity to restore nature’s balance.
For the record • From the onset of the ozone crisis in the 1970s till today the chemical industry • has followed the 4 D Strategy to maintain the global monopoly CFCs provided: • Deny: your product is the cause of the problem • Delay: regulatory controls on your products • Dominate: the market with HCFCs, HFCs and now, HFOs and HFC-32 • Dump: obsolete technologies into developing countries
ChemCo fights back • ICI in 1991 writes to UK GP supporters: Can we all go back to the laboratory and spend the next ten years working on Greenpeace ideas to see if they can be made to work in practice? Greenpeace have refused to join in any discussions of what might actually be done about the problem in a practical way. After all it is so much easier to stand on the sidelines and criticise. • And in 1992, a high level ICI representative is quoted as saying: Greenpeace lacks a sense of urgency. Most alternatives it talks about are not available. They’re either pie in the sky or will only be feasible next century. Our alternatives are available now.
Greenfreeze Revolution 1992-93 Greenpeace develops ‘Greenfreeze’ hydrocarbon technology for domestic refrigeration Greenpeace promotes Greenfreeze in Europe, China, Japan, South America 1997 -Greenpeace receives UNEP Ozone Award for giving Greenfreeze to the world
GreenfreezeRevolution • Over 650 million Greenfreeze refrigerators in the world today • 40% of global annual refrigerator production (2012) • 95% of EU & 75% of Chinese production • 80% of global production by 2020
SolarChill = Health+Environment+Development • Climate friendly • Battery free • Solar powered • Clean: no kerosene • Commercialized • GEF Technology Transfer Projects
Greenpeace campaign l results in initiative by Coca Cola, PepsiCo, Unilever, McDonald’s & Red Bull to only buy HFC-free, point-of- sale equipment by 2015.
Confrontation yields to cooperation • 1998 Greenpeace engages major Olympic sponsors of the 2000 Sydney Games to not use HFCs at the so called “environmental Olympics” • Following an international public campaign by Greenpeace, Coca Cola, McDonald’s and Unilever make commitments to phase out their use of HFCs • In 2004, Refrigerants, Naturally! is launched by the corporations, supported by Greenpeace and UNEP
RefNat accomplishments • Combined RefNat partners have over 20 million cooling units in • the field and buy over 2 million units annually • Coca Cola: 600,000 units • Unilever: 900,000 units • PepsiCo: 145,000 units • RedBull: 313,000 units • McDonald’s: Developing HFC-free equipment • RefNat engagement with standards and policies
Consumer Goods Forum Over 650 retailers, manufacturers, service providers and other stakeholders from 70 countries Committed to start phasing-out HFCs as of 2015 RefNat and the CGF commitment shows that industry is capable of doing the right thing without being legislated to do so.
Greenpeace Report: Cool Technologies: Working without HFCs : available from OEWG site There are many examples of companies moving ahead of governments in phasing-out HFCs. HFC-free technologies exist in nearly the full spectrum of applications, such as: Domestic Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Commercial Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Mobile Air-Conditioning Industrial Processes Insulation Foam Blowing
“No matter what you do in this life it will seem insignificant…but the important thing is that you try.” - Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948)