§ Mr. St. AubynTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1) which(a) countries and (b) sections of the European Commission his Department consulted before announcing the change in its hydrofluorocarbons policy, referred to in DETR Climate Change Programme-HFC Policy Change; [123025]
575W(2) which countries have indicated their agreement with the change in his policy on hydrofluorocarbons, announced in DETR Climate Change Programme-HFC Policy Change; and which countries have recently announced similar changes in policy; [123026]
(3) which (a) engineering bodies, (b) industry bodies and (c) manufacturers in the United Kingdom air conditioning and refrigeration industry his Department consulted before announcing the change in its hydrofluorocarbons policy, referred to in DETR Climate Change Programme-HFC Policy Change. [123027]
§ Mr. MeacherMy Department did not hold any formal consultation before the Government's new HFC policy was announced in the draft climate change programme, which was published for consultation on 9 March 2000. However, officials have been involved in meetings that have taken place at international and European level between technical experts, industry representatives, officials from other countries and officials from the environment and enterprise sections of the European Commission on the use and projected trends in emissions of hydrofluorocarbons.
In addition my Department commissioned a report in 1998 from March Consulting Group to provide updated annual UK emissions data for HFCs, PFCs and SF6 in each user sector. This also covered projects to 2020 and assessed the costs and benefits of options to reduce future emissions. In compiling their report, March Consulting Group consulted many companies within the UK air conditioning and refrigeration industry, and industry was given the opportunity to comment on the report.
My Department has not formally consulted other countries about the new HFC policy. However, several countries such as France, Italy, Germany and Finland indicated initial broad support at official level. Other countries will be considering their policies on HFCs as part of their development of programmes to deliver their Kyoto targets, but few have yet made clear statements on their position. The Danish Government have recently announced their new HFC policy, which would ban the use of HFCs in many applications.