Economic evaluation: refrigerants emissions avoided thanks to the Convention of 1993

This study was describing the functioning of 3 sectors and was evaluating the quantitative results. The convention signed in 1993 between the environment Minister, the ADEME president and the French cold association president allows, in France, to get each year a part of refrigerants (CFC, HCFC substitution products) which could, in default of recovery, be emitted into the atmosphere and contributes at the greenhouse effect increase. At the initiative of ADC3R and in the context of a research agreement, the Chaire Economie du Climat, in collaboration with CITEPA, sought to produce an economic evaluation of the benefits of these recovery actions, in terms of reduction of greenhouse effects emissions. The recuperation sector, in France, seems to be more and more structured with a steadily increasing efficiency rate and superior at 50% these last years, resulting in large part from the implementation of the 1993 convention. CITEPA, from the database constituted by the ARMINES, have the opportunity to translate into global warming power (GWP) the emissions avoided each year between 1993 and 2013. This evaluation translated in “tons of CO2 equivalent” the tonnages of refrigerant gases recovered by using the coefficient between the 4th and 5th evaluation reports (AR4 and AR5), and the CITEPA have done the calculation with each of the two sets of coefficients: the difference does not exceed 4%. The Chaire Economie du Climat has then proceeded to an economic evaluation of the profits for the society of these emission savings. For this purpose, we used the “tutelary value” of the CO2 emitted, that is to say the value that the public authorities recommend retaining in the calculations intended to illuminate public decisions. In effect, she represents the value that the society should give to the reduction of one ton of CO2 equivalent emissions. These “tutelary value” is, in France, the subject to successive revaluations according to the state of science and the economics parameters, and then, the actualized values are required in the public economic calculations. The most recent evaluation of the tutelary value of carbon results from the work of the Strategic Analysis Board product in 2008 at the request of the Prime Minister. The commission recommended:

These hypotheses resulted in an approximately value of 45 €/tCO2 eq in 2010, that the actualization was 55,5 €/tCO2 eq in 2015, value that we retained for our evaluation. Under these hypotheses, the economic value for the emissions reduction’s community of obtained GES between 1993 and 2013 may be evaluated at approximatively 2,4 billion of euros. This evaluation is naturally affected by a margin of approximation («between 2 et 3 billion of euros» would certainly be a more prudent estimation) but we can observe that she has be built by using parameters (PRG, tutelary values, discount rate) resulting from diligent works and recognized by the State and/or by the international community (GIEC, General Commissariat of the Plan, Strategic Analysis Council). 2,2 billion of euro in the hypothesis of a progressive disappearance of 1% by year of gas emitted without remanence of the effects.