The ATMOsphere 2010 Report has just been published and is available for free download.

Brussels, 13 October 2010: From 27-28 September, ATMOsphere 2010 - the international workshop on natural refrigerants, gathered in Brussels 170 policy and industry experts in the field of natural refrigerants in order to elaborate ideas on HOW to bring natural refrigerants such as CO₂, ammonia and hydrocarbons, faster to market.

“We need a roadmap to bring natural refrigerants faster to market”, says Marc Chasserot, chairman of ATMOsphere 2010. “There is a growing number of organisations around the world working on this important issue of introducing sustainable alternatives to HCFCs and HFCs. ATMOsphere 2010 brought them together to discuss HOW to build this roadmap." 

The participants benefited from 40 presentations on the technology and regulatory state-of-play of the natural refrigerants sector. In interactive workshops they then elaborated a list of barriers that currently block the way to a broader uptake of natural refrigerants and discussed and formulated solutions to these barriers.

As a result, the ATMOsphere 2010 summary report displays for the first time a comprehensive analysis of the challenges and opportunities that the natural refrigerants sector faces with regards to

• technology & safety
• legislation & standards
• training & know-how
• markets & marketing + funding & support
• supply & availability
• psychology
   

The second part of the report gives a policy overview on the role of natural refrigerants at UN, EU and national level; the education session focuses on training initiatives that contribute in spreading the word about natural refrigerants with young engineers; the retailers session sheds light on major end-users' involvement with natural refrigerants and the India panel adds the perspective of a developing country with respect to ammonia, hydrocarbons and carbon dioxide.

The report closes with a summary of the technical sessions on refrigeration, heat pumps and air-conditioning systems using CO₂, ammonia or hydrocarbons as refrigerants of choice.

The ATMOsphere 2010 report aims at keeping its readers abreast with the two-days discussions between industry and policy in a concise and user-friendly way. The ATMOsphere 2010 report is also specifically intended to developing countries business operators and policy makers as they are right now phasing-out HCFCs under the Montreal Protocol. They thus have a unique opportunity to directly opt for natural refrigerants in the heating and cooling sector.

In order for the report to reach a broad audience, the organisers will distribute it at Chillventa in October, as well as at the 22nd Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol (MOP 22) in November and at the 16th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 16) in December.

The ATMOsphere Report 2010 can be downloaded from: http://www.atmosphere2010.com/media.center.php   

For further information, please contact

Marc Chasserot
Chairman ATMOsphere 2010 - Managing Director, shecco
marc.chasserot@shecco.com
+32 475 97 2006

Christianna Papazahariou
Head of Government Affairs, shecco
christianna.papazahariou@shecco.com
+32 484 13 8069