The term Fugitive Emissions describes unintended or accidental releases to the environment, and in carbon reporting terms, those which have a Greenhouse Gas impact. They are a Scope 1 emission.
Most commonly, they will be gas or refrigerant leaks. Clearly, there are cost implications here for the business, but crucially, there can be significant carbon impacts, particularly from leaking refrigerants from cold plants and air conditioning.
Consider that HFC-23 has a global warming potential 14,800 times that of CO2. Thankfully, these types are no longer in common use, but even the more modern ‘R’ types have CO2 equivalency factor of several thousand.
Depending on the type in use then, even small losses can have a significant impact on a businesses Carbon impact, and as they are Scope 1 emissions, have to be included in Carbon reporting.
The existence of leakage, and its carbon impact is easy to measure, but the cause of the leakage may be rather more difficult.
In conclusion, if a business has to regularly top-up refrigerant, there is a leak which is impacting on cost and on its carbon footprint.
Ewan Bent, 3 Nov 22
