In my own little neck of the woods (the US Navy), we are living through the changeover of CFC-12 to HFC-134a because of ozone depletion treaties. My contribution was work on submarine application from a life support and crew health standpoint.
Yes indeed, HFC-134a has an ozone depletion potential of 0.0 (no chlorines or bromines). Even 5 years ago, I had heard that Germany had chosen to ban HFC-134a because of Global Warming Potential. I suspect that this is due to the significant influence of the Green Party there.
HFC-134a potentially could make a significant contribution to Global Warming (if that is even true) because of its absorption properties, but it has a short atmospheric life-time. Its about 15 year (I'm not sure whether that is a half-life or 90% reduction time) as determined by the Naval Research Laboratory. Compare that to about 100 years for CFC-12, and you can see that its total contribution over time should be small.
In the first world, there are plenty of laws in place for curbing the release of refrigerants during repair or disposal - and I believe they are followed to a large extent. The problem is the rest of the world. Worldwide, there would be thousands of tons of HFC-134a that could potentially be released. Even then, the short lifetime makes HFC-134a not so much a threat.
Al McCarrick
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