According to the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the amount of fluorinated greenhouse gases used by the German economy in 2023 was approximately 7.2 million tons of CO2 equivalent, a slight increase from the previous year’s 7 million tons.
The German Environment Agency (UBA) had previously forecast a total of 674 million tons of CO2 equivalent in greenhouse gas emissions for Germany in 2023, a 10.1% decrease from the previous year. In this context, the proportion of fluorinated greenhouse gases in total greenhouse gas emissions in 2023 would be around 1.4%.
Fluorinated greenhouse gases are used, for example, as refrigerants in air conditioning and refrigerators, or as blowing agents for the production of plastic and foam materials. The impact of individual greenhouse gases on the climate varies in strength. The CO2 equivalent is used as a reference, with a warming potential of one for CO2. Fluorinated greenhouse gases, on the other hand, can have a warming potential many times that of CO2.
The CO2 equivalent value expresses the contribution of a specific greenhouse gas to global warming, in the form of the amount of CO2 that would have the same warming effect. In this sense, the approximately 8,096 tons of fluorinated greenhouse gases used by the economy in 2023 could potentially contribute to global warming as much as 7.2 million tons of CO2.
Of the total 8,096 tons of fluorinated greenhouse gases, 2,007 tons were R 1234yf (tetrafluoropropene), the most commonly used fluorinated greenhouse gas, with a warming potential equivalent to CO2. The second most commonly used gas was R 134a (tetrafluoroethane), with a massive 1,300 CO2 equivalent warming potential, equivalent to 2.4 million tons of CO2.