Rise in appliance sales prompts fears of a climate time bomb Source: Industry, US EPAtt Australia's rush to acquire airconditioners and fridges is creating a greenhouse gas time bomb, which the Greens and environmental groups say existing regulations, including the carbon tax, are ill equipped to defuse. The country has at least 45 million cooling devices, up from about 30 million in 2007, with 1 million airconditioners alone sold each year for home use and a similar number in new passenger vehicles. The vast bulk of the equipment uses fluorocarbon coolants which, though small in weight - about 600 grams per car - can pack as much as 10,890 times the global warming impact of carbon dioxide when released, either through leakage or when the device is disposed of. The deliberate release of such gases has been illegal since 1989, but with as little as 25 per cent of the gases recovered each year from discarded devices, the rest of the gas is vented with impunity. Refrigerant gases have been a problem for decades. Australia passed the Ozone Protection Act in 1989 as part of global action to phase out chlorofluorocarbons and hydrochlorofluorocarbons when the chemicals were found to be destroying the ozone that blocked dangerous ultraviolet radiation from space. The replacement coolants, mostly hydrofluorocarbons, are potent greenhouse gases. This month, US President Barack Obama and China's President Xi Jinping agreed to "phase down" HFC consumption. Debate swirls over the contribution to global warming from HFCs - the government puts the impact at less than 2 per cent of Australia's emissions now but experts say the rate is 4 per cent or higher since CFC and HCFC venting is excluded. The White House said the US-China pact on HFCs would help cut 90 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2050, or about two years' worth of worldwide emissions now. Australia imports about 7000 tonnes of fluorocarbon-based refrigerants annually. Refrigerant Reclaim Australia, a body set up by industry in 1993 to collect such chemicals for destruction, disposes of about 500 tonnes a year of HFCs and HCFCs, and about 40 tonnes of the now-banned CFCs. "I don't believe the enforcement around that end-of-life recycling is adequate to ensure that all of the refrigerant is being recovered," RRA general manager Michael Bennett said. Illegal discharge of the gas attracts a $51,000 fine but only one penalty has been imposed, the government said. The government is committed to imposing the law and will spend another $7.2 million next financial year for extra enforcement and destruction programs. Tim Edwards, president of the Australian Refrigeration Association, which advocates the end of all fluorocarbon use, said the most effective action would be to jail or fine heavily those who broke the law.