If you’ve never heard of Blog Action Day, this post is part of a concerted action by bloggers around the world to write about the same topic – climate change – on a single day: Blog Action Day (15 October).
In order to help combat climate change, the reduction of emissions from fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-Gases) covered by the Kyoto Protocol is now required by EU law and UK regulations. Typical uses of F-Gases are in air conditioning systems (both for buildings and vehicles), refrigeration, and foam sealants.
In the case of fire protection, this means companies supplying and maintaining firefighting systems which use F-Gas extinguishants have obligations to prevent the leakage of those gases. In the UK, the Fire Industry Association (FIA) has worked with Eurofeu (the European trade association) to ensure that the requirements of the regulation did not unfairly penalise the industry but still resulted in significant environmental protection.
The resulting European legislation recognised that working to the industry standard ISO 14520 means that you will meet the requirements of the regulation. Having had success in influencing the content of the legislation, the FIA then worked (and is still working) with DEFRA (Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) on the UK implementation of the legislation. The result of this close working relationship is that under the UK regulations relating to the training, examination and competence requirements published in 2009, the FIA was listed as the examination and certification body for fire protection.
A training course was developed and has subsequently been rolled out, with over 100 engineers being trained so far. This means that the trade has a far better understanding of the environmental impact of F-Gases and their role in reducing them, while maintaining good quality fire protection.
For more information on how the F-Gas Regulations might affect you, visit the dedicated section on the FIA website.
This blog is part of . You can read more perspectives on climate change from my colleagues by following the links below:
FSE fire's Weblog 
[…] UBM colleagues who have written for Blog Action Day 2009 are Anthony Hildebrand, Brian Sims, Ron Alallouf, Phil […]
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