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