About ATMOsphere 2010

ATMOsphere 2010 – The International Workshop on Natural Refrigerants - will be held on 27-28 September in Brussels to help answer one simple question: HOW to bring natural refrigerants ‘Faster to Market’?

It builds on the success of ATMOsphere 2009 held on 4-5 October 2009 where 170 participants from industry, policy, and the finance community joined the discussion about where to best apply natural refrigerants (CO₂, ammonia, hydrocarbons) in heating, cooling, and refrigeration.

ATMOsphere 2010 wants to go a step further and start an interactive debate on the best way to remove barriers for sustainable refrigerants, promote market innovations, and help spread the word from developed to developing countries. The new “ATMOsphere formula”:

150 Participants: Key stakeholders from policy, industry, end-users, academia, NGOs, and media will have an equal distribution to ensure a balanced and effective debate on needs, barriers, and solutions with an impact on a wide-spread use of natural refrigerants.

45 Moderators: Leading experts from the policy and industry arena will guide the workshop discussions to make sure that proposed solutions are innovative, focused, and practical. Moderators will change after one day.

15 Groups: Small groups with an equal distribution of different stakeholders will discuss a set of questions and issues about HOW to remove market barriers, exploit technology options, adapt standards, propose legislation, and enhance knowledge exchange within and between developed and developing countries. Groups will change after one day.

12 Innovations: A Call for Paper will select the best market innovations using natural refrigerants around the world. Presentations just before the workshop sessions will talk about solutions having left the prototype and testing phase to be applied widely. The papers selected will introduce the topic of the four workshop sessions and inspire debate around how to successfully market and support such solutions.

12 Policy Speakers: To provide the legal context, 10 speakers from the UN and EU level, as well as representatives from public authorities in the U.S. and Japan will add their view on the state of natural refrigerants in international and national debates. This year, speakers from developing countries will raise their voice to highlight challenges and opportunities on their way from HCFCs to future-proof refrigerant solutions.

4 Applications: Industrial Refrigeration, Air-Conditioning, Commercial Refrigeration, and Heat Pumps will this year be the four selected topics for the market innovation presentations and the following workshop discussions. All participants will have the opportunity to listen to all presentations and work on the same subjects.

2 Days: ATMOsphere will leave enough time for a face-to-face meeting to discuss the “HOW” in bringing natural refrigerants faster to market. However, two days cannot be enough. That’s why, discussions will already start several months before – online, interactive, and global. ATMOsphere 2010 will provide the tools to exchange views.

1 Report: Each group will report back to the rest of the ATMOsphere participants. Results will be collected and flow into one report to summarise main recommendations. This report will travel to UN negotiations in Nairobi (MOP 22) and Cancun (COP16), to the leading HVAC&R event Chillventa 2010, and reflected on several communication platforms and in the media.