I was honoured recently to give the keynote opening speech at the Alternative Cooling Conference at Earls Court last month.

Surprised as well, because for those that know me will testify, my main experience and expertise has been in the field of air conditioning rather than traditional refrigeration – very diverse groups in the UK traditionally.

The diversity of the speakers that followed, though, reinforced my feelings – that different types of system will operate most efficiently with different refrigerants. There is no “silver bullet” refrigerant that will tick all the boxes, all the time.

A lot has been said about the long-term viability of HFCs but the general consensus from the gathered industry experts was that they are the best solution for some equipment and that we really need to concentrate on enforcing the F Gas Regulation properly to make sure these gases are safely contained.

But the wider world outside of our industry really doesn’t know who or what we are most of the time: we are mainly seen as someone who fixes the white box in the corner of the kitchen.

As an industry, we have a lot to say. And the evidence from the conference was that the UK is producing some great results in field testing and commissioned sites to highlight the UK’s talents in leading the way.

Great examples of CO2, ammonia and hydrocarbon installations and trials on compressed air systems show that we are really driving the R&D on so-called natural refrigerant use.

It is only a pity that certain professional lobbying groups are content with continuing to attack our industry as the bad guys when we are clearly working hard to improve our industry and the environment. And a greater pity that the political classes, unwilling to listen to reality, take advice from people that know little about what we do.

It is high time our industry started to fight back and let our politicians know the truth – no matter how inconvenient that may sound to them.