Already for the 4th time shecco organised the international workshop ATMOsphere Europe, held from 5-7 November 2012 in Brussels. 200 participants from 100 organisations, among them European Commissioner for Climate Action Connie Hedegaard, discussed “Solutions for Europe” – both through highlighting the availability of natural refrigerant solutions and by addressing barriers still pending for their wider uptake.
The two day event, preceded by an exclusive workshop on 5 November, brought together major stakeholder groups from the component and system supply chain, to engineering and consultancy firms, commercial and industrial end-users, and policy makers. A total of 50 speakers added their view in nine different sessions.
Innovation & Ambition
“The key to ATMOsphere Europe was the simple fact that we brought together many of the leading experts that will create the HVAC&R industry of the future. The knowledge sharing, networking and ideas presented are a proof of industry constantly innovating to meet new challenges. Natural refrigerants are a fantastic example of this innovative role of forward thinking industry,” Marc Chasserot, Chairman of ATMOsphere and Managing Director shecco, summarised the event’s main result.
“The real power of being here over the next 2 days is that you can be interactive with people, you can share ideas and pick up on latest information, take that away and do something totally different with it”, Andy Pearson, President of the Institute of Refrigeration UK, set the tone in his introductory keynote speech. Pearson reminded participants that some of the largest success stories in the natural refrigerant industry where mostly driven not by legislative pressures but by the fact that their use made good business sense, while also delivering on the environmental benefits at the same time.
Component and system suppliers, as well as food retail chains and fast-moving consumer goods brand shared his views by presenting technological and commercial success stories to ensure Europe’s head start in the uptake of natural refrigerant technology could be kept in the years to come.
“World-exclusive” presentation of new F-Gas Regulation proposal
The 2nd official day of ATMOsphere Europe coincided with the release of the new F-Gas Regulation proposal by the European Commission. Ms Bente Tranholm-Schwarz took the floor to explain to industry for the 1st time after its publication what implications the new proposal would have on the reduction of HFCs, and the support for alternative technologies.
On the day before European Commissioner Connie Hedegaard had encouraged the audience at ATMOsphere Europe that “Acting now will put EU industry in a first-mover position and many of you are living proof of this. In this area that will be more and more in the international focus, it gives you an advantage if you are actually among the first-movers.”
ATMOsphere Report to travel around the world
Major results and trends have been summarised in a special “ATMOsphere Europe 2012 Report” shortly published after the event. The report will be presented to United Nations and national representatives during the 24th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol in Geneva, held 12-16 November.
More information
More information about the ATMOsphere series of events: http://www.atmo.org
More Information:
ATMOsphere Report 2012 (4 MB)
ATMOsphere concludes: Solutions for Europe are ready - Press release 12.11.2012 (118 KB)
