Unpacking the 1 Global Warming Solution

i want you to picture

walking into your local grocery store

you browse around pick up your milk your

broccoli

your ben and jerry’s cookie dough ice

cream maybe you pick up two pints

because they’re on sale

hey no judgment here you go home happy

and don’t even give it a second thought

now when i walk into a grocery store i’m

painfully aware

of what you don’t see a refrigerant gas

called hydrofluorocarbons or hfcs

it’s what keeps our food cold it’s a

super polluting chemical

and a greenhouse gas that’s way worse

than co2

pound-for-pound hfcs have up to four

thousand times

more impact on global warming than co2

and they’re growing faster than any

other greenhouse gas

on the planet bottom line to even have a

chance

at solving the climate crisis we need to

get rid of hfcs

now this is why project drawdown named

refrigerant management

the number one global climate solution

i think about refrigerants all day every

day i’m also a mother

and i’m nine months pregnant this is so

vitally important i’m literally talking

within days of my due date i’m terrified

of climate change

i’m worried about the world we’ll be

leaving to our kids

but i am hopeful there’s something you

and i can do about it

the average grocery store contains

thousands of pounds of hfcs

and leaks 25 of its refrigerant

every year if we multiply that by all

the grocery stores in the u.s

it adds up to just under 70 million

metric tons of co2 equivalent

this is about the same amount of

emissions that’s needed for the

electricity

to power nearly 12 million homes in a

year

which is just about the same as the

number of households

in the state of california this is all

just from the leaks

i’m sure you’re thinking can’t we just

stop the leaks

and i can tell you no grocer wants to be

leaking

refrigerant but even in a perfect world

where no system ever leaked hfcs would

still harm

the environment so what’s the solution

it turns out there’s already a really

good one

it’s climate friendly naturally

occurring and can’t be

patented natural refrigerants

going back to basics in fact it’s deja

vu

the very first refrigeration systems

used

natural refrigerants they’re household

names that are leading

a double life as cooling superheroes

ammonia propane even co2

as crazy as it sounds co2 is a solution

and a bonus is that natural refrigerants

can reduce energy

water and gas consumption too

so now you’re thinking great let’s just

switch out hfcs with natural

refrigerants and call it done

but we can’t just switch out the gas

with natural refrigerants

we have to replace the whole system

here’s how that would look in your home

you’re so motivated by this talk you

volunteer

to replace the hfcs in your fridge

but the technician tells you not only do

you have to replace

your refrigerant but your refrigerator

your plumbing

your walls and flooring at the same time

if you’re like most people you’ll

probably just decide to live with the

harmful gas

it’s really not that bad it’s just one

fridge

especially since no one is making you do

it

on the flip side if everyone did it

there’d be economies of scale to bring

down

costs more technicians trained to do it

new technologies to make it easier this

is exactly what effective policy does

and we’ve already been down this road

before hfcs

grocery stores used a different chemical

refrigerant

that nearly destroyed the ozone layer

now here’s where policy comes in

and this is important the montreal

protocol one of the most successful

international treaties phased out

ozone-destroying refrigerants

the problem is they were replaced with

hfcs

we didn’t realize that by saving the

ozone layer we’d be speeding up global

warming

thankfully the kigali amendment to that

same treaty

is targeting hfcs today over a hundred

countries have signed on

for example the eu’s hfc policies have

fast tracked the phase down

and are making natural refrigerants

practically standard in grocery stores

it’s a great example of how effective

policy can accelerate change

unfortunately the u.s has not signed on

and we don’t have effective policies to

get rid of hfcs

grocers basically have to volunteer to

do it

and just like the example of the fridge

in your home

we know this is crazy expensive and

almost logistically impossible

but there is something we can do now and

the grocery community is already taking

action

we’ve built a powerful network of

grocery stakeholders

who are working every day to tackle the

barriers to natural

refrigerants change is happening

but much slower than it would with

effective policies

by taking action now we can see results

within our lifetime

experts project that eliminating hfcs

can avoid up to half a degree

of warming by the end of the century

which is significant

because the catastrophic tipping point

is only one and a half degrees

away the thing is all of us can play a

role in accelerating this change

the first step is awareness and now you

know

how critical it is to eliminate hfcs

fast so tell others spread the word to

your network

and to foundations who fund climate

change initiatives

ask your local newspaper to cover the

story speak

up at your city council meeting talk it

text it tweet it

whatever it takes let’s make everyone

aware

of hfcs in grocery stores natural

refrigerants give me hope

because they have the power to make the

number one global climate solution a

reality

and i believe the individual awareness

gives us the collective power to make

this change happen

to leave a better world for our kids

thank you

you