Chinese fridges keep food and the planet cool.

After the prototype wa ^a r_ nn 1 ea ror a year in 1UU C inese ri ges holds, Chinese officia th J J s confident to launch th Keep Foou anu t le ond phase-a completo Planet Coo ket transformation. This second phas An international project aims to boost the launched in Beijing c manufacture and purchase of green refrigDecember 1999. Sche erators-not those 1970s-style avocadoto take five years, this green fridges, but environmentally friendly will focus on offering refrigerators. According to the China State nical assistance and iI Statistical Bureau, over 12 million refrigtives to compressor erators will be manufactured for the refrigerator manufact Chinese market this year, and with to produce energy-effi them-at least, with traditional refrigeradesigns and modificai tors-comes environmental pollution and conversion of cu1 from greenhouse gases and ozone-depletfactory production li ing chemicals. The project also aim Refrigerators present a two-fold blow establish national effic to the environment. First, they have tradicy standards and a nati tionally relied on chlorofluorocarbons labeling program an( (CFCs) for use both as coolants and as an offer consumer educa ingredient in the foam insulation that on the benefits of the encases the storage compartment. During refrigerators. Finally, production and use, CFCs leak into the project includes plans t air. Because they are so chemically stable, sumer buyback and re( they are swept intact into the stratosphere, older model refrigerat where they are broken down by ultraviolet reduce CO2 emissioi radiation from the sun, releasing chlorine metric tons over the atoms that react with and degrade ozone. produ Second, the generation of electric power 2012. by burning fossil fuels causes refrig massive emisChin sions of the mati greenhouse gas ean carbon dioxide ing~, (CO) Cur-rs rently, coal-firedin plants provide t shin some 80% of rn( China's electricity