The Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) has released a timely and impactful discussion paper titled Freeze Frame: Refrigerants as long-term building infrastructure.
The report, developed in collaboration with the Australian Institute of Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heating (AIRAH), addresses the critical role refrigerants play in modern buildings and illuminates the challenges that the built environment must confront to mitigate environmental and health risks associated with refrigerant use.
Heating, cooling, and refrigeration systems are essential components of contemporary buildings, yet the refrigerants employed within them pose significant long-term risks, as emphasised in the paper: “Heating, cooling, and refrigeration systems are essential in modern buildings — but the refrigerants they use pose long-term challenges that the built environment can’t afford to ignore.”
This statement captures the urgent need for the property sector to recognise refrigerants not merely as operational necessities but as pivotal elements in climate strategy and infrastructure planning.
Tracing the history of refrigerants, the discussion paper notes the pioneering work of James Harrison in Geelong during the 1850s, who used the naturally occurring compound ether in mechanical refrigeration technology.
It states: “We are at a critical moment in the long evolution of refrigerants.
“Pioneered by James Harrison in Geelong in 1850s, the revolutionary technology of mechanical refrigeration relied on the naturally-occurring compound ether.”
This historical perspective sets the stage for understanding how refrigerant technology and material choices have evolved with complex environmental trade-offs.
The transition from natural to synthetic refrigerants in the 1930s, while addressing safety concerns locally, introduced broader global issues, as the paper outlines: “In the 1930s, natural refrigerants were replaced by synthetic alternatives due to local safety concerns.
“But these replacements introduced planetary risks: ozone depletion, climate change, and now, the environmental and potential human health impacts associated with ‘forever chemicals.’ In trying to solve a local problem, we created global ones.”
This highlights the unintended consequences of early synthetic refrigerants, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which have contributed to ozone layer depletion and global warming.
The scale of the issue is significant — more than 62 million refrigerant-dependent devices are in operation across Australia, a 15 per cent increase in five years, with the sector valued at approximately $12.7 billion annually.
HVAC&R systems typically have a lifespan of 15 to 20 years, meaning the choices made today will shape Australia’s emissions and retrofit costs for decades.
Jorge Chapa, GBCA’s Chief Impact Officer, stresses the current gap in planning: “Every building relies on refrigerants, yet they’re rarely factored into long-term planning.
“If we don’t plan ahead, we risk higher retrofit costs, supply shortages and emissions that could have been avoided.
“The refrigerant choices we make now will shape building performance for decades to come.”
This calls for proactive, future-focused decision-making across building design, maintenance, and policy frameworks.
AIRAH’s Advocacy and Policy Manager, Mark Vender, points to the opportunity for industry collaboration to address these challenges: “The HVAC&R industry is on the front line of Australia’s refrigerant transition.
“By bringing together technical expertise and property-sector leadership, this paper encourages the practical steps we need to take – from smarter design and maintenance to better refrigerant tracking and stronger collaboration across industry and government.”
Such collaboration is essential to accelerate the shift to lower-impact refrigerants and implement robust refrigerant management.
The paper advocates for immediate actions on both existing and new buildings.
For existing infrastructure, this includes reviewing and registering refrigerants in use and planning staged transitions to safer alternatives.
For new constructions, it calls for designing buildings to minimise refrigerant reliance by prioritising passive design strategies, efficient HVAC&R systems, and forward-looking refrigerant selections.
With COP31 scheduled for 2026, the GBCA sees a strategic opportunity for Australia to assert climate leadership through this sector.
Chapa remarks: “With COP31 on the horizon in 2026, Australia has an opportunity to demonstrate its climate leadership, and refrigerants is one area where the property sector can show practical action.”
The full discussion paper is available for public consultation on the GBCA website until April 2, 2026, inviting stakeholders across the property, engineering, policy, and environmental sectors to contribute to shaping the future approach to refrigerants in Australia’s built environment.