Perfectly Cool is broadcast on BBC World News at the following times (all times quoted as UK time zone currently GMT+1):
Friday 11 September - 1930 (except Middle East)
Saturday 12 September - 0430
Monday 14 - 1230 (Asia Pacific only)
Tuesday 15 - 1530
Wednesday 16 - 0130 (except Asia Pacific, Middle East and South Asia)
It’s a scorching hot day in Beijing, the Chinese capital. The temperature is approaching forty degrees. Everyone wants to keep cool. China is booming. It’s the manufacturing power house of the world. And with their new wealth, many people can now afford air conditioning. But the gases currently used in air conditioning here – and around the world – are harmful for the environment.
XIAO YOUYUAN: At the moment there are 2 problems for the environment. The first is that it damages the ozone layer, which leads to an increase of ultra-violet rays. Another problem is that it causes a greenhouse effect. The temperature of the world will increase.
So is it possible to keep Perfectly Cool without causing such damage?
 Shopping for air conditioners.
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There’s a carnival atmosphere outside one of the main branches of the Gome electrical store in Beijing. People have money to spend. And with the city sweltering in the summer heatwave, they are happy to pay to keep themselves cool. So business is brisk in the air conditioning department. For Li Hong Bin and his wife Zhang Chan Juan, air conditioning is something that they urgently need, and can afford. He works for a mobile phone company, she’s an accountant, and they have just got married. They expect to pay up to 5,000 Renminbi – so they can stay cool.
LI HONG BIN: We’ve just bought a new place and moved in. The summer is coming, and it’s very hot, so we’ve bought air conditioning to cool down.
China dominates the world’s air-conditioning industry. Over 75% of the world’s room air conditioners are made here, and the country produced over 30 million room air conditioning units for its domestic market alone last year. Business could be even better this year.
WANG YIN KUN: Beijing is getting too hot right now. I’m from the north and I can’t get used to the heat here.
SHI ZHENG YUAN: Using a fan doesn’t keep me cool. I’ve no choice. I’ve got to buy air conditioning.
Shi is unaware that the gas in air conditioning units causes problems for the environment, especially the ozone layer. That’s the layer of naturally occurring gas that surrounds the earth in the stratosphere, and absorbs up to 99% of the sun’s ultra-violet rays, which are potentially damaging to life. The discovery of a hole in the ozone layer led to an international accord, the Montreal Protocol, in 1987, with the aim of phasing out man-made ozone depleting substances. At first, the emphasis was on getting rid of the most ozone-damaging gas, CFC, used in aerosols, refrigerators and air-conditioning in cars. It’s to be phased out completely by 2010. But there’s another threat to the ozone layer from another gas, HCFC. All across Beijing – and across China – there are buildings that look as if they are covered in pimples because there are so many air condition units. Most of them contain the gas HCFC, which is still widely used in air conditioners across most of the world. 70% of the HCFC that’s made (around the world) goes into room air-conditioning. It was originally considered acceptable by the international community to continue the use of HCFC because it does twenty times LESS damage to the ozone layer than CFC. And it was thought there would be no significant growth in sales. But with the massive boom in the air conditioner market, HCFC is now harming the ozone layer more than expected.
ALICE FAN, Greenpeace, China: And now it’s causing huge environmental problems, especially in Asia where people want to buy domestic air conditioners and the HCFC air conditioners cause huge environmental problems and the ozone layer was damaged a lot.
This is Zhuhai, a seaside town across the water from Macao, that’s both a popular holiday resort and the centre of China’s air conditioning industry. It’s known across the country for its excellent climate, and clean air. And that’s one of the reasons that Xiao Youyuan was keen to move here.
 Air conditioning engineer Xiao Youyuan.
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XIAO: Zhuhai is a beautiful small harbour city on the coast… so the quality of the air is good here. We came here because we were attracted by the air and the environment. We say that the air is so good that you could bottle and export it!
He’s part of a team with a crucial mission – to try to develop new air conditioning with a gas that won’t damage the environment. He works for Gree, a company that specialises in air conditioning, and is the main employer in Zhuhai. Gree is China’s air conditioning giant. This factory alone employs twenty four thousand workers – many of them migrants who have moved here from the countryside. Work continues here non-stop, twenty-four a day. Shifts are staggered, employees constantly arriving and leaving.
XIAO: Welcome to Gree, the world’s biggest research and production company for AC…right now our products are exported to over 200 countries. It’s an honour to be working for Gree.
It’s a highly successful company. Xiao and his colleagues aim to make it environmentally friendly, too. Gree produces 50 to 60 thousand air conditioning units a day…that’s up to 18 million in a year. A third of them are for export, but most are for the domestic market. The majority of the units manufactured here – around 85% - use a coolant gas HCFC, also called R 22. Though, as Xiao readily admits, R22 is known to have seriously effects in depleting the ozone layer.
XIAO YOUYUAN, Senior Researcher, Gree Electric Appliances: R22 is a fluorocarbon gas that damages the ozone layer. It will reduce the depth of the ozone of the ozone layer around the earth. It will create a hole in the ozone layer, and so the ultra-violet rays will come through directly, and that will have an effect on the plants, animals and human beings on the surface of the earth. This is the main problem with R22, damaging the ozone layer. And as well as damaging the ozone layer, R22 causes global warming …the Global Warming Potential (GWP) is as high as 1,700. That’s another big problem.
Which means that, as a greenhouse gas, it’s 1700 times more damaging than carbon dioxide. HCFC, or R22, is by far the most widely used refrigerant gas in the world. After all, it’s reliable, and cheap. But because of the damage it causes to the ozone layer, its global production and consumption is restricted by the Montreal Protocol, which has been signed by China and 195 other countries. Developed countries will phase out the gas no later than 2020, and already units using this gas are no longer imported into Europe. Imports into the United States will end in 2010. ‘Developing nations’ such as China, will phase out the gas by 2030. So for the next 20 years, new units containing this ozone-damaging gas can still be made …and for some activists, that’s far too long.
ALICE FAN, Greenpeace, China: HCFCs are very dangerous ozone depleting substances, and Greenpeace trying to do everything possible to phase out HCFCs, and Montreal protocol asks to phase them out in 20 years but we want to accelerate and phase out with speed.
Across the river from the Gree factory in Zhuhai, new apartments are being built to house those who are moving to the rapidly expanding city, looking for work. Most will want air conditioning. In this one little city alone, hundreds of fitters are employed, installing a thousand air conditioning units every single day in summer.
YANG SHAO KAI, Air Conditioning Installation Manager: Air conditioning sales have increased enormously in the past 3 or 4 years. It’s because living standards have increased and the weather is getting hotter and hotter. City people have got money and want to spend it. They can’t say no to air conditioning. If you don’t use it, you can’t sleep at night.
The rise in air conditioning sales damages the environment in two ways. HCFC gas is harmful for the ozone layer and adds to global warming. And the extra electricity used by consumers adds to emissions from China’s coal-powered power stations. This order is for Li Bing Xiu who has moved to Zhuhai to help look after her family. She’s living here with her daughter Lizi and two year-old grand-daughter, Manquing.
LIZI LONG: My mother came to Zhuhai and she feels the weather is getting hotter and hotter…this year is hotter than last year. The whole family went to the shop and decided to buy this brand because it’s reliable, the quality is guaranteed and the price is not expensive…so she chose it.
This is advertised as ‘romantic Zhuhai, China’s happiest city’. During the wedding season, brides-to-be have glamorous photos taken on the beach that will be on display at their wedding parties. Few seem aware that a gas used by in air conditioning around the world, adds to the depletion of the ozone layer.
Vox Pop: A hole in the ozone layer? I don’t know anything about it!
Woman With Umbrella: I’ve heard about a hole in the ozone layer, but I don’t know what it is.
Vox Pop: The sun is not out, so it’s not dangerous sunbathing today.
Some of those on the Zhuhai beach may be unaware of the importance of the ozone layer, but back in Beijing, the damage that is being caused by the HCFC gas in air conditioning worries the industry. Professor Jiang Feng is Secretary General of the China Household Electrical Appliances Association. She supports the Montreal Protocol and wants HCFC to be phased out…though she’s concerned that up to now no-one has discovered a gas that’s better in every way.
PROF. JIANG FENG, China Household Electrical Appliances Association: If we stop using HCFC right now, that will cause a huge loss to the industry, and it’s irresponsible towards the consumer…so we need to make progress in finding a substitute. We hope that when we phase out HCFC the loss to the industry will be as small as possible.
So when it is phased out, what should take its place? The current obvious alternatives are a more expensive cooling gases that are already in use, called HFC, including those known as R410A or 407C. They don’t damage the ozone layer and can be exported to Europe and anywhere around the world. Some units are sold as top of the range models in China. But this gas is not perfect. When it comes to global warming, it’s even more damaging that HCFC.
XIAO: The best thing about HFC is that it doesn’t damage the ozone layer, but the problem is that it’s still a greenhouse gas, so it’s still one of the gases that we should use less.
PROF. JIANG, China Household Electrical Appliances Association: The substitute for HCFC is 410a. this does no damage to the ozone layer, but it is still a greenhouse gas, and the global warming potential is even higher than that of HCFC. The number is 2,000. So personally I think it’s not the perfect substitute. It’s just a temporary substitute. I think it will be phased out from the market. It’s just a matter of time.
So at present, air conditioning uses two sorts of gases. One that damages the ozone layer, and is to be phased out. And another that DOESN’T damage the ozone layer but has even GREATER global warming potential…and so, it’s argued, SHOULD be phased out. Beijing at night is a reminder of how far, and how fast, China has progressed. There are spectacular displays of the country’s technical achievements. Like this enormous overhead screen in a shopping centre. And there are food markets that stretch across whole streets. China is an economic success, and air conditioning is part of that success story. But air conditioning worries one of the country’s new young celebrities. Sa Dingding is a young singer who has already made an impact in the West with her extravagant stage shows and videos. But she is worried by the pollution in Chinese cities, and she has extreme views on air conditioning. She supports the government campaign to save energy by making sure buildings are never kept too cold.
 Singer Sa Dingding.
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SA DINGDING: Personally, I think using AC is dangerous for human beings.. It damages the ozone layer, and people who use AC for a long time get sick and have to see the doctor. In China, a lot of people get ill because of AC, and so it affects their work and their lives. So now there is a policy in China that the temperature should be kept above 26 degrees.
And as for creating public awareness of the ozone-depleting and climate-changing gases, she has her own solution.
DINGDING: I think more young people should know more about AC…there should be more information available. Just like every cigarette packet has a health warning, in the future AC should have the same warning.
Back in the research department at Gree, there are hopes that the company has found the ideal air conditioning solution, at last. One that won’t need an environmental health warning. Xiao Youyuan is testing a brand new unit, which uses a coolant that’s a natural gas, propane, also called R290. It doesn’t harm the ozone layer, and has only a tiny effect on global warming. Propane has been used as a refrigerant in Europe and elsewhere, but not on a large scale in the room air-conditioning market. So is China developing the air conditioning unit the industry has been waiting for? Propane is environmentally safe and cheap, but is a gas that’s also used for cooking, so it can burn.
XIAO YOUYUAN, Senior Researcher, Gree Electric Appliances: Of course people know about the dangers of the gas. People have basic knowledge of the dangers of hydrocarbons. As to whether it’s safe or not, when we use the gas we have found that it is comparatively safe – it’s safer using the hydrocarbon as a cooling gas than using gas for cooking.
 Testing a new A/C unit which uses propane.
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So far, the new environmentally safe gas seems promising. Tests on these units have continued non-stop for over six months. A whole floor has been set aside for a new propane production line, which will start, on a small scale, later this year. Whether it’s a success or not depends on sales. Other companies in China are working on rival schemes for safe air conditioning, but of course Xiao wants Gree to succeed. And he wants to help the environment.
XIAO: Of course I do! As an individual, I live on this planet. I’m part of the planet, and I hope the environment will improve. That’s the reason and the purpose we are developing new gases to replace the old ones.
At present the gas used in air conditioning units around the world either damages the ozone layer or causes global warming. So the challenge for China – and the world – is how to be perfectly cool, and successfully make and sell air conditioning that doesn’t harm the planet.
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