The event was successful and paved the way for the next project on Policy Assessment study of potential MAC policy benefits (see below).
Financial support for this event came from the Government of Finland, USEPA, and UNDP, with additional support provided of the Indian Government and TERI.
The OzonAction Branch is working with China SEPA, the MAC Association of China, USEPA, SAE and the European Commission to organise a similiar workshop in China in 2007.
Assessment study of MAC technology and policy alternatives of potential benefits for India. MoU was signed in September, should be completed within about 6 months.
TERI has collected Indian MAC data and has provided them to NREL to run a model. We are in touch with EPA and TERI to try to make sure that enough India-specific data gets collected.
Financial support for the study was provided by the Government of Finland and USEPA.
UNEP DTIE in cooperation with USEPA is developing and testing the energy efficiency of an improved HFC-134a MAC system ("I-MAC") on small vehicles that already achieve the highest fuel efficiency, and compare the test results with a CO2 MAC system ("B-Cool") vehicle which is being developed under funding from the European Commission and European vehicle manufacturers and suppliers.
The basis for comparison will be the Total Equivalent Warming Impact (TEWI) concept and the Life Cycle Climate Performance (LCCP) approach. This project will help resolve the scientific and technical debate on which refrigerant, either HFC-134a or CO2, currently has the better environmental performance in small, fuel-efficient vehicles. The HFC-134a technology development will be led and implemented by MAC technology partners, primarily Fiat Research Centre, General Motors and Delphi.
UNEP will provide a neutral, expert and broad-based platform for testing and evaluating the two competing technologies. Sustainability of the project will ultimately be achieved by the commercial adoption of the most-fuel efficient and environmentally-performing technology by the automotive and automotive parts industries worldwide. UNEP will help achieve this through the presentation of balanced technical information about the different MAC technologies. In this period of historic high oil prices, the fuel-efficiency advantages of the new MAC systems will be of significant interest to the companies in terms of the marketability of fuel-efficient automobiles to consumers.