UN Report Increases GWP Value of R-32, Will Not Impact Use in Low-GWP Products

Last week the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its sixth assessment report “Climate Change 2021 – The Physical Science Basis.” This is the latest report to measure the global warming potential (GWP) of refrigerants including R-32. In this report scientists increased the GWP value of R-32 from 675 to 771. Many regulators view 750 as the cutoff for low-GWP refrigerants used in air-conditioning. This change has led some to speculate that R-32 will no longer qualify, however, the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act (AIM Act), which regulates HFCs at the federal level, still uses the GWP measurements from IPCC fourth report keeping R-32 as a viable refrigerant for low-GWP air-conditioning.