REAL Alternatives 4 LIFE project considers global growth prospects

Key bodies involved with EU-backed refrigerant training project expect to support more countries in moving to low GWP solutions as initial development funding comes to an end

The ‘REAL Alternatives 4 LIFE’ project will continue to look at opportunities to expand the scope of its work and reach around the world, despite the scheduled end of its initial EU funding.

Organisers behind the EU-funded project, which promotes the use of lower GWP refrigerants such as ammonia, carbon dioxide and lower flammability gas, said they remained open to increasing the number of languages its materials are translated into. This focus could also look at introducing the training materials to a wider number of countries, particularly those outside of the EU.

EU funding that was provided to support the project’s materials has now finished. However, all existing training materials and groups established through this work, including the official REAL Alternatives 4 LIFE website will all continue indefinitely.

The Institute of Refrigeration (IOR), which is one of the trade organisations involved in supporting REAL Alternatives 4 LIFE, said that that project was expected to continue to grow in the next few years. This expansion was expected to focus on improving accessibility to the project’s online training materials and face-to-face learning, when it can resume safely after the global disruption caused by Covid-19 for the majority of 2020.

The IOR stated, “The face-to-face training was really starting to take off – especially in Spain and Italy before lockdowns.”

What's next?

A lack of national legislation that would mandate training for individuals looking to work with flammable refrigerant or CO2 was highlighted by the numerous trade bodies involved with REAL Alternatives 4 LIFE as a pressing concern for ongoing work. The IOR said that various organisations involved with the project were in the process of monitoring how the issue of training is addressed in the review of F-Gas regulation currently underway by the European Commission.

The organisation said that the project’s stakeholders were focused on seeing how the issue of skills and capability might factor into any revisions of the EU’s flagship environmental regulation in future.