One big thing that the US is doing to reduce climate emissions is replacing the refrigerants that are major greenhouse gases (HFC) with HFO-1234y and so called natural refrigerants like propane and carbon dioxide. Many new cars use HFO-1234y in their air conditioner, it’s a big part of complying for with the carbon emissions standards implemented for cars during the Obama administration.

But outside of the HVAC and automotive engineering industry, virtually nobody knows this. Yet it’s not particularly controversial and as such the politicians don’t talk about it. It doesn’t require any action by consumers – a refrigerator that cools using CFC, HCFC, HFC or HFO-1234y works exactly the same – just some refrigerants destroy the ozone layer, others cause climate change. And others like HFO-1234y, Carbon Dioxide or Propane have a modest to almost zero impact on the climate when emitted into the atmosphere.