Mr BARRESI (Deakin) (5.05 p.m.)--I rise today to address an important international issue: our environment, and how a company in my electorate has been frustrated in its efforts to make a difference at a local level.
Our survival depends on the sustainable use of our natural resources, but gone are the days when most modern conveniences cost our environment dearly. We now have the knowledge and innovation to benefit from our natural resources while taking steps to ensure nature's delicate balance is not irrevocably upset.
Esanty, a company based in the Deakin electorate, is attempting to significantly reduce ozone depletion and greenhouse gas usage, which contributes to global warming as well as minimising other pollutants and damaging chemicals--a product which contrasts with the environmentally sensitive HFCs.
Esanty's innovation is a prime example of how Australians can assist our environment and eat our lifestyle cake too. But Esanty's story is also one of a Deakin businessman fighting at times against the might of conventional industry and the stubbornness of bureaucracy.
The need for Australia to contribute to a better global environment is
beyond dispute. As the Prime Minister (Mr Howard) told this House last week on
22 September:
. . . the only way in which you will get a really serious answer to the response to the problem of greenhouse gas emissions is to involve everyone in the solution to the problem.
As well as being a party to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the government supports a cooperative program with industry known as the `greenhouse challenge'. Over 30 of our largest enterprises, which produce 45 per cent of our greenhouse emissions, have signed agreements to reduce waste and pollution. Twelve industry associations have signed on, with another 84 enterprises preparing to sign similar agreements.
In addition, the coalition's $1 billion Natural Heritage Trust will encourage revegetation and land and waterway rehabilitation on an unprecedented scale.
Much has been achieved, but more can always be done. Some of the most significant improvements involve simple changes at a local level, from recycling used products to cutting down on energy use. Airconditioners, for example, are a significant and real source of pollutants. Whether in our businesses, our homes or our cars, airconditioners traditionally relied on CFCs and now use HFCs or hydrochlorofluorocarbons. The battle against CFCs has been won, but the battle against HFCs is still to be won. Esanty plays a very significant part in winning that battle.
One tonne of a gas commonly used in car airconditioning systems, R134A, is said to release 38.8 tonnes of global warming carbon dioxide gases. Simply manufacturing the gas releases damaging gases into our environment. In Australia alone, more than 80,000 kilograms of fluorocarbon refrigerants enter the atmosphere each year. I am proud to say that Deakin based Esanty is trying to assist the ordinary Aussie motorist to make a difference.
There are more than eight million cars on Australian roads today and over 458 million worldwide. The projections are that that will increase even more so. A growing proportion of them feature airconditioning. Around 80 per cent of US cars and 25 per cent of British cars have airconditioning. Fifty per cent of those in Europe are expected to have airconditioning by 2000.
Esanty's products--hydrocarbon refrigerant gases ER12 and ER22/502--are organic refrigerant gases derived from natural gas, incorporating the principles of `greenfreeze'. They have a zero ozone depleting substance rating and have minimal global warming potential. Products with hydrocarbon coolants also use less energy than other products. Tests of commercial refrigerant systems showed greenfreeze to be 50 per cent more efficient than ozone depleting refrigerants, and they use 10 per cent to 30 per cent less energy. A standard Australian built car contains about 800 grams of HFC in its airconditioner. The same car needs just 280 grams of hydrocarbon gas to run the same airconditioning unit.
Most alarming, research published just last month, some of it in the
Lancet, demonstrates that HFCs which were previously thought safe are
highly toxic at the levels currently used in cars. HFCs had been thought to be
safe in concentrations of up to 8,000 parts per million when people were
exposed to the gas for up to half an hour. Last month's report by Armstrong
Laboratories in the United States shows that a concentration of just 4,000
parts per million will kill humans by cardiac arrest in under four minutes. If
all the gas in a standard unit were to enter the cabin at once, HFC gases would
be present at 10 times this concentration. This gas cannot be seen or smelt.
Greenfreeze technology provides a safer, more efficient alternative.
Numerous European nations, led by Germany, have embraced it. The first
greenfreeze fridge rolled off the German Foron production line in 1993. In
1996, more than eight million fridges were made by European manufacturers,
almost 100 per cent using greenfreeze technology. In 1994, CalorGas in the
United Kingdom introduced a line of hydrocarbon refrigerants as direct drop-in
replacements for CFCs--and now, of course, HFCs--under the brand name `CARE'.
Many overseas governments have actively encouraged the adoption of hydrocarbon based refrigerants, but Australia has not been as quick to follow in this pursuit. Three years ago, government and industry specialists denounced the conversion to greenfreeze gases; encouraged, say the cynics, by certain vested interests. During the past two years, the Motor Vehicle Repair Industry Council of New South Wales, the Association of Fluorocarbon Consumers and Manufacturers and the Vehicle Air Conditioning Specialists of Australia--all of whom, understandably, are out to protect the interests of traditional manufacturers--have led an unprecedented fear campaign. They have made a victim of an initiative that would have significantly contributed to reducing waste emissions and our attempts to control ozone depleting substances on this planet.
Esanty claims that in July 1995, following several articles in magazines and newspapers, a Canberra lobby company faxed all government and automotive industry organisations. They wrongly `announced' the imminent release of a dangerous, flammable and explosive refrigerant gas, requesting its immediate ban. The industry pressure against Esanty even led to a carefully stage-managed car explosion supposedly caused by hydrocarbon refrigerant gases. Furthermore, the New South Wales Minister for Fair Trading, Mrs Faye Lo Po, immediately banned the products without industry consultation and requested Victoria follow suit. I am pleased to say Victoria refused and continues to refuse the request.
This campaign has persisted unsupported by any academic engineering authority. In fact, greenfreeze technology has been supported by an objective evaluation by Dr Ian Maclaine-Cross and Professor Leonardi from the University of New South Wales, as well as by international green groups.
Claims that the new product would be dangerous have been proven wrong. International standards ISO 5149, BS 4434 and AS/NZS 1677 now regulate the safe use of these products in many countries, including Australia.
In the past two years, I am informed, Australia has used more than 30,000 kilograms of hydrocarbon refrigerant gas. Had fluorocarbon refrigerants been used, 100,000 kilograms would have been required. The effectiveness of this as a substitute for the more dangerous and environmentally sensitive HFCs can be seen.
It is clear that a national approach to the regulation of hydrocarbon refrigerant gases is essential to the work of companies such as Esanty. Car airconditioning and refrigeration units are key markets for hydrocarbon gases. I hope the state and federal governments can offer their support in an appropriate way after sufficient scientific evaluation.
In addition to the environmental benefits proven elsewhere, it is estimated that there could be export related sales of tens of millions of dollars. Already plans are in place for high expansion and trade with various Asian countries. Highly efficient, low energy consumption hydrocarbon refrigerants are desperately needed in Asia-Pacific markets. While hydrocarbon refrigerants would initially be applied to the automotive industry, their use has the potential to extend into large-scale multi-million dollar industrial projects.
Esanty has recently been acquired by Boral, one of Australia's leading companies. It is now part of a division of Boral Limited. Mr Colin Spencer, who heads Esanty, will this week meet with two coalition government ministers. I would like to place on the record my appreciation to those ministers for their willingness to hear what a locally based business from the Deakin electorate is achieving.
The current international debate on Australia's greenhouse gas levels,
together with the pressures being exerted by the European Union and the United
States of America, provides us with an ideal opportunity to explore products
such as those produced by my constituent for our nation's advantage. Let us not
tear down such ingenuity, but applaud it, support it and exploit it to the
benefit of both our environment and our economy. (Time expired)