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by scheme271 638 days ago
The energy source for AC is a big issue but the refrigerant gas in most AC units cause issues for the ozone and for global climate change.
2 comments

Is this still true in 2024? AFIK, modern ( everything after 2010) ACs, pumps and refrigerator use ozone neutral gas like HFC.
It is still true, most common refrigerants still have quite high GWP [1]. Not as bad as in the 70's, but the transition to neutral gasses is not ready yet. And then there is also all the old installed systems still running.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigerant#Common_refrigerant...

It says right in the table that propane only has 3.3 times the potential of CO₂. That's in fact quite low for the use.
HFCs are amongst the most damaging climate gases.

It's a very unfortunate outcome of phasing out CFCs that they have in many instances been replaced by powerful greenhouse gases. HFCs are slowly phased out as well, but there are still a lot of harmful gases out there.

The typically used R32 does not cause any ozone issues. It is a climate gas, but only if it escapes from the pipes which it doesn‘t if properly installed.