§ Mr. Peter AinsworthTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to prohibit the use of partly and fully fluorinated hydrocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride in commercial and industrial processes and consumer products; and if she will make a statement. [56041]
§ Margaret Beckett[holding answer 13 May 2002]: The UK Climate Change Programme published in November 2000 set out our position on hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride. Currently, there are no plans to prohibit the general use of fluorinated gases.
Under the European Climate Change Programme (ECCP), the Environment Council, at its meeting of 12 December 2001, "Welcomed the intention of the (European) Commission, as announced in the ECCP Communication, to make a proposal for a Framework Directive on fluorinated gases, including containment of emissions from stationary and mobile sources, monitoring of quantities of fluorinated gases being placed on the market as well as marketing and use restrictions, where appropriate, for relevant applications where viable alternatives are available and if improvement of containment is not feasible, taking into account existing voluntary initiatives by some fluorinated gases industry sectors, where the development of alternatives is still ongoing."