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World fashion capitals look at possible $600 million shortfall, thanks to covid

InternationalFeb 17. 2021In 2011, Roberto Cavalli’s Fashion Week party was held at the Battersea Power Station in London. This year, the virus has forced cancellation of fashion shows for a second season in the fashion capitals of New York, London, Paris and Milan. The power station is shown on March 28, 2010. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Simon Dawson

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Kim Bhasin, Angelina Rascouet, Flavia Rotondi

Each year over four weeks in February and March, thousands of fashion executives, celebrities, influencers and models hopscotch between the world’s style capitals to attend runway shows. Attached to them is a multimillion-dollar economy that pumps both investment and tourist spending into New York, London, Paris and Milan.

For the second season in a row, all of that has been erased by the pandemic. Almost all shows will be virtual, as they were last September. The luxury hotels normally packed with fashion’s finest will be near empty, local clubs and venues won’t be welcoming many for nightly parties, museum and art exhibitions will be ghost towns, and high-end boutiques will miss out on the cash that flows from a flood of shoppers willing to shell out thousands for a dress or handbag.

All told, the four cities could miss out on more than $600 million in economic activity this season, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Here’s a look at what it’s like on the ground in the world’s four prime fashion hubs as the industry braces for a second lost season:

New York

Not long after last February’s shows ended, New York City became the epicenter of the global coronavirus pandemic, leaving tens of thousands dead. A late-year resurgence in the Northeastern U.S. led to renewed restrictions on business in Gotham, though infection rates have recently started to decline again. Nevertheless, New York’s Fashion Week, which began this past weekend, is being held virtually.

More than 100 events are on the calendar, from panels to presentations on live streams and a few runway shows that actually include physical elements. Mainstays like Rebecca Minkoff and Jason Wu will take part as usual, and more than a dozen young designers will be spotlighted by the Black In Fashion Council.

The Council of Fashion Designers of America said it expects business this spring to be tougher than last fall. “This season, even more than last, will be a great challenge for all of us as the world grapples with an increasingly devastating pandemic and economic downturn,” Tom Ford, chairman of the CFDA, wrote in a letter to the industry.

New York’s Fashion Week usually generates hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue, surpassing that of the U.S. Open tennis tournament the city also hosts each year, according to the state legislature’s Joint Economic Committee. During normal times, they attract 150,000 attendees who fill Manhattan’s hotels, light up the night life and spend lots of money.

London

It’s been a mixed start of the year for London, with a more easily transmitted virus variant forcing a third lockdown while the vaccine rollout raises hopes that another catastrophic surge can be avoided. The British Fashion Council is holding a digital-only event starting Feb. 19 that will showcase both women and menswear by 95 designers-with names including Victoria Beckham.

London’s Fashion Week usually brings in more than $374 million (£269 million), according to FashionUnited’s Business Intelligence. Oxford Economics estimates 240,000 direct jobs representing more than one-quarter of the U.K. fashion industry’s workforce have been lost because of the pandemic. Including indirect jobs, the toll spikes to 350,000.

Back in 2011, nightclub owner Carlo Carello organized Roberto Cavalli’s Fashion Week party at the Battersea Power Station. He’s had to fire 80% of the staff at the Raffles club, an iconic venue in the posh Chelsea neighborhood. “We’d be heaving every night of the week, we’d normally have two or three Fashion Week parties on,” Carello said of pre-pandemic times. “A business like ours is being decimated.”

Making things worse is another malaise looming over the U.K. fashion industry: Brexit. Walpole, the organization representing luxury brands such as Burberry, said smaller fashion brands have stopped doing business with the European Union for the time being because “there’s an imperfect understanding” from country to country of duties that need to be charged, now that the U.K. is on its own.

A worker prepares to close a restaurant before curfew in Duomo Square in Milan on Oct. 26, 2020. Each of the four Milanese fashion weeks has brought in about 30 million euros in tourism spending, a number that this year will be reduced about 80%, says the head of the Italian Fashion Chamber. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Francesca Volpi

Milan

When this year’s fashion shows begin in Milan on Feb. 23, they will be fully digital, apart from a few presentations where a limited number of buyers and media have been invited to watch, socially distanced. Opening night will be an Instagram live party with a DJ set instead of an in-person blowout in a city that suffered some of the pandemic’s worst loss of life last spring.

To keep the city involved-and to allow passersby to watch live shows by icons such as Armani, Prada, Fendi and Dolce & Gabbana-the Italian Fashion Chamber will put up big screens in strategic locations across central Milan.

“It will be a symbolic gesture,” said Carlo Capasa, the chamber’s chairman and chief executive officer. “A reminder for the people of Milan that fashion is still part of everybody’s life, resilient despite the covid crisis, still able to incarnate the city’s values: creativity and efficiency.”

In past years, each of the four Milanese fashion weeks would bring in about 30 million euros in spending at places like hotels and restaurants. Capasa expects that income to be cut by at least 80%.

Barriers block access to the Louvre museum during coronavirus lockdown measures in Paris on April 14, 2020. A year ago, Louis Vuitton’s Nicolas Ghesquiere set up his catwalk inside the Louvre, a monumental show that fashion filmmaker Loic Prigent described as “a swan song to covid-free times.” MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Cyril Marcilhacy

Paris

A year ago, Louis Vuitton’s Nicolas Ghesquiere set up his catwalk inside the Louvre, a monumental show that long-standing fashion filmmaker Loic Prigent described as “a swan song to Covid-free times.” Gone are the days when A-list celebrities would huddle in the front rows at the world’s the most visited museum. This time, the womenswear Paris Fashion Week will be an online affair. It kicks off on March 1.

The Institut Francais de La Mode estimates that Paris Fashion Weeks generated 450 million euros annually before the pandemic. While new estimates since the virus struck haven’t come out yet, the amount has predictably dropped, according to Pascal Morand, chairman of the Federation de La Haute Couture et de La Mode, which organizes the event.

Five of Paris’s 12 premier hotels, dubbed Palaces, are currently open, though with occupancy rates hovering between 5% and 15%, Christophe Laure, chairman of the UMIH Prestige hotel industry group said. During a normal pre-covid Fashion Week, all Palaces would be open with 80% to 100% of their rooms booked. The situation “is pretty worrying,” Laure said.

Morand said covid-19 has at least democratized access to the shows, thanks to their digital format-and the numbers show it. The Louis Vuitton’s fall menswear show by Virgil Abloh in January 2020 has been viewed just under 500,000 times on the brand’s YouTube page, whereas the 2021 show has already amassed more than double that amount.

Nevertheless, Morand looks forward to the day when traditional fashion shows return, since the digital experience “will never fully replace” the feeling of being there.

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Myanmar generals defend coup, dismiss impact of U.S. sanctions

InternationalFeb 17. 2021Brigadier-General Zaw Min Tun, the lead spokesman for the State Administration Council

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg

Myanmar’s junta again defended its move to oust the civilian government in the face of nationwide protests, dismissing the impact of U.S. sanctions while showing no signs of a compromise with demonstrators.

Brigadier-General Zaw Min Tun, the lead spokesman for the State Administration Council, said Tuesday the military’s actions were in line with the 2008 constitution and “not a coup.” He added that the regime was taking steps to fight Covid-19 and wanted to attract foreign investment, while seeking to discredit protesters by showing videos of violence against authorities.

“To ensure democracy and prosperity, people should cooperate with us without being emotional,” Zaw Min Tun said in the military’s first official press briefing since the Feb. 1 coup. He said the junta would proceed with an election according to its timeline while “trying not to be violent as much as possible.”

The remarks signal Myanmar’s army is looking to improve its image after tens of thousands of people have hit the streets in defiance for more than a week, including on Tuesday, drawing support from democracy activists in Asia and Western governments. U.S. President Joe Biden sanctioned coup leader Min Aung Hlaing and other top generals while foreign investors have reassessed plans to put money in the country.

Zaw Min Tun said the generals expected sanctions and dismissed their impact, saying it had experience of such things when Myanmar faced international isolation prior to its shift toward democracy a decade ago.

“We will make sure to keep good terms with the UN and all the countries,” he said. “Our council is trying to strengthen ties with all countries.”

The regime shut down the internet for a second straight night, part of efforts to disrupt telephone and internet access to prevent demonstrators from organizing. They have also made changes to the telecommunications law to impose harsher prison sentences for illegal online activity, while also granting themselves new powers to intercept communications and detain dissidents.

Myanmar’s military leaders have struggled to gain control of the streets since ousting the government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party won a landslide victory in November elections. She has urged the country’s 55 million people to oppose the army’s move, calling it “an attempt to bring the nation back under the military dictatorship.”

Suu Kyi and other political leaders are among more than 400 people detained since the coup, a number that keeps rising by the day. Police filed an additional charge against her, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing her lawyer. Zaw Min Tun said Suu Kyi was in “good health,” while adding that authorities were investigating money laundering at a foundation she runs.

While police and soldiers have largely avoided confronting protesters in major cities like Yangon who have ignored a ban on public gatherings, several demonstrators have been injured in crackdowns — including a woman shot in the head who is now on life support in Naypyidaw, the capital.

Zaw Min Tun declined to say whether the woman was hit with a rubber bullet or live bullet, as protesters have alleged. “We will give you all the information about what the girl did to the police,” he told reporters.

He also urged civil servants to return to work, saying “we will unavoidably take actions against these civil servants after a certain period.” He added that the government was “operating as normal” despite the protests.

According to a copy of the amended telecommunications law seen by Bloomberg News, anyone found guilty of perpetuating a cyberattack to threaten national sovereignty or unity may now face up to five years in prison and fines of as much 30 million kyat (about $22,570). Those who commit such attacks to hurt Myanmar’s relationship with other countries face even stiffer penalties, up to seven years in prison and a 50 million kyat fine.

Those found guilty of spreading fake news or hoaxes online to cause public panic, or publishing private information of another individual without their permission, meanwhile face up to three years in prison and fines of as much as 5 million kyat.

Telenor Group, which owns one of two wholly foreign owned telecommunications providers in Myanmar, on Monday joined mounting opposition to the junta’s proposed cybersecurity bill, saying it gives the regime broad powers including the ability to order lawful interception. The Asia Internet Coalition, whose members include Facebook Inc., Apple Inc. and Google, stated on Feb. 11 that the bill allows for unprecedented censorship, violates privacy and would “significantly undermine freedom of expression.”

“The current very short and limited consultation has not allowed for the required dialog on the proposed Cyber Security Bill,” Telenor said in a statement. “We are concerned that the proposed bill does not progress relevant regulatory frameworks and law for a digital future, nor promotes and safeguards digital safety and rights.”

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Power outages plague Texas, other states amid deadly cold, snow

InternationalFeb 17. 2021Snow and ice blanket downtown Cleveland, Miss., on Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Photo for The Washington Post by Rory Doyle

By The Washington Post · Andrew Freedman, Paulina Firozi, Jason Samenow, Matthew Cappucci

At least 14 people are dead in four states from the effects of a record-shattering cold snap and winter storms since Sunday. In Texas, as the electricity grid struggled to keep pace with record demand, people were turning to unsafe means to heat their homes. A woman and a girl died of carbon monoxide poisoning in Houston after a car was left running in a garage to keep them warm, according to police.

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The Arctic air has also claimed the life of at least one homeless person in Houston, and a 10-year-old boy died after he fell through ice near Millington, Tenn. A tornado associated with the storm system that helped draw Arctic air to the south struck in North Carolina overnight, killing at least three and injuring 10.

A third of electric customers in Texas were without power Tuesday morning according to PowerOutage.us, because of snow and ice, an overloaded power grid and emergency measures to reduce the electricity demand affecting a number of cities as well as rural areas. About 4.3 million customers were affected.

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Texas is unusual in that its electric grid is nearly entirely independent from the rest of the country. When demand exceeds supply, the state is largely unable to import electricity from neighboring states, as is a customary practice almost everywhere else in the country.

The demand, largely driven by the need to heat homes in brutal Arctic temperatures, ran the risk of overwhelming the power grid and triggering uncontrolled outages. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas announced Monday that it was instituting rotating power blackouts.

The blackouts have been anything but rolling; many people have had outages lasting at least 24 hours. The electricity taken off the grid was enough to power 2 million homes.

The U.S. Department of Energy temporarily lifted pollution restrictions to allow power plants to operate and produce at full capacity.

Social media was ablaze with widespread reports that downtown areas, such as in Austin, were lit up “like a shiny island in a sea of black” while neighboring suburbs remained dark in the frigid cold.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, criticized private power companies.

In a call to the local ABC13 station late Monday, Abbott said outages were in part a result of private power generation companies having “fallen short.”

“There’s a separate part of the system that is not working right now, and those are the private companies that generate the power that goes into ERCOT. And it’s those private companies that generate power that are not working,” Abbott told ABC13. “They were working up until about midnight last night, but after midnight, some of them literally froze up, and were incapable of providing power, and some are still incapable of providing power.”

ERCOT is the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. It handles about 90% of the state’s electricity load.

Abbott was asked about preparations made to prevent such outages after a cold wave that hit Texas in 2011. He said not enough was done to “gauge for this type of event, because the last time we had this type of weather was more than 100 years ago.”

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission announced that it would open a joint inquiry alongside the North American Electric Reliability Corp. into power systems.

The regulatory agencies said the inquiry would include work with other federal, state and regional agencies and utilities to help identify problems with system performance, and to help assess what can be done to address those problems, according to a release from the agency.

“For now, the emphasis must remain on restoring power to customers and securing the reliability of the bulk-power system,” FERC Chairman Rich Glick said in a tweet.

The agency said the inquiry would formally begin in the “days ahead.”

A decade ago, the two agencies also conducted an inquiry and produced a report on the severe cold-weather event the Southwest experienced in 2011.

Corpus Christi issued a boil order after a “major water main break” led to low water pressure or no water for some customers. The city has issued an order to boil water before drinking it, cooking with it, or making ice, or instead to purchase bottled water.

In North Carolina a tornado tore through the southern part of the state late Monday, the Brunswick County sheriff said in a morning news conference.

Sheriff John Ingram said early Tuesday that at least three people were killed and 10 were injured in a storm that caused “a lot of destruction” along Highway 17 between the North Carolina coastal communities of Sunset Beach and Ocean Isle Beach, near the border with South Carolina and about 40 miles southwest of Wilmington, N.C. The devastation has left many buildings destroyed and residents trapped in their homes, authorities said, though the full severity of the damage remains unclear. Trees and power lines were also reported down throughout the area.

At midnight, a tornado was spotted in Honey Island, N.C., according to WWAY, about 45 miles west of Wilmington. Shortly thereafter, the National Weather Service reported power lines down along Highway 17 in Brunswick County.

A second winter storm is heading to the same region. Winter storm warnings were issued in parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas as more dangerous winter weather approached.

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Millions lose power in Texas as freeze sows energy-market chaos

InternationalFeb 16. 2021

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Brian K. Sullivan, Naureen S. Malik, Javier Blas

Millions of households in Texas are suffering rolling blackouts for the first time in a decade as an unprecedented Arctic freeze sends temperatures plummeting across much of the U.S., roiling energy markets.

Large swaths of Dallas, Houston and other cities are being plunged into darkness for an hour at a time — and in some cases longer — as surging demand for heat pushes the power grid to the brink. The situation is poised to become more dire as temperatures are forecast to fall to as low as 3 Fahrenheit (minus 16 Celsius) in parts of the state.

“Every grid operator and every electric company is fighting to restore power right now,” said Bill Magness, head of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which runs the state’s grid.

The extreme cold that’s crippling Texas’s power market is part of a larger weather pattern gripping much of the U.S. Winter storm warnings, advisories and watches stretch from New Mexico to Maine. In the past week, about 800 daily records for cold temperatures have been set in the U.S. as arctic air pushes all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Accuweather called it one of the busiest winter-weather patterns in decades.​

Texas is the home of the U.S. energy industry, and the impact of blackouts hitting its major cities; oil and gas production falling because of the cold weather, and power prices soaring to eye-watering levels is highly symbolic of a world that’s trying to get its grip on a battle against climate change, moving away from hydrocarbons.

The extreme cold appears to have caught Texas’s highly decentralized electricity market by surprise. When they warned of possible blackouts Sunday, grid operators said they’d likely last for 15 to 30 minutes at a time. On Monday morning, officials said they were lasting considerable longer.

“These are not rolling blackouts. We are dealing with system-wide power outages across the state,” Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said on Twitter.

These are the first rolling blackouts caused by cold weather since 2011. Spikes in electricity demand usually happen in summer in Texas when air conditioning use rises. A loss of frequency on the grid has caused 30 gigawatts of generation to halt. Many stations will have been undergoing scheduled maintenance, leaving the grid more exposed during unusually large spikes in demand.

Rotating outages will likely last throughout Monday morning and are a possibility until the weather conditions ease, Ercot said in a statement.

Parts of Texas were colder than Alaska, according to the National Weather Service. The temperature at 5 a.m. in Houston was 18 degrees Fahrenheit, matching the reading in Anchorage. In the Dallas-Fort Worth area it was 5 degrees Fahrenheit.

Frigid temperatures and a parade of storms in the U.S. follow other instances of extreme winter weather this year that have snarled ports and upended energy markets in Asia and Europe. Texas, which isn’t accustomed to winter’s full fury, is getting a big taste. President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency, mobilizing federal assistance to aid local response efforts.

“We would expect to be in emergency operations tomorrow through at least Tuesday morning,” said Dan Woodfin, a senior director at Ercot.

The power crunch is being compounded by a lack of wind generation with output more than halving to 4.2 gigawatts. Wind turbines may freeze in bitterly cold weather, reducing efficiency, and the blades can ultimately stopping spinning.

Earlier, spot electricity prices in Texas’ West hub surpassed the grid’s cap of $9,000 per megawatt hour, a 3,466% increase from Friday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. LNG exports from the U.S. also plummeted after the freeze shut ports and wells, and oil production also took a hit, with Permian oil production plunging by as much as one million barrels a day. West Texas Intermediate futures rose by as much as 2.5%, above $60 a barrel for the first time in more than a year.

The cut to crude supplies is threatening to unleash a rush for everything from propane to heating oil, fuels that are used in mobile heating devices.

Odessa, one of the largest oil producing areas in the Permian Basin, still has power. While San Antonio has lost power with rolling blackouts lasting 10-15 minutes, according to sources on the ground.

In Houston, there are long lines to refill household propane canisters and firewood is selling out. The city may pick up as much as 2 inches (5 centimeters) of snow overnight, along with ice and sleet, the National Weather Service said. It will get hit by another storm bringing ice and freezing rain Wednesday.

“It is going to be a cold week,” said David Roth, a senior branch forecaster at the U.S. Weather Prediction Center. “The southern plains are in a cold pattern and it is going to take a while for them to break out of it.”

A mix of freezing temperatures and precipitation is paralyzing wind farms in Texas. That would be devastating for power plants with contracts to provide a certain amount of electricity at specific times if they need to instead buy it on the spot market to meet their obligations. At the moment, that power is exceedingly expensive.

“When wind-turbine blades get covered with ice, they need to be shut down,” said Joshua Rhodes, a research associate who focuses on energy at The University of Texas at Austin.

The grid is Texas has relatively little connection with the rest of the country, making it an island when it comes to supplies.

The storms will largely miss major cities along the East Coast, Bob Oravec, senior branch forecaster with the U.S. Weather Prediction Center said. While there could be some snow showers and ice in New York and Boston, the bulk of the accumulation will be in upstate New York and interior New England Monday to Tuesday.

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Seoul offered free covid tests for pets and soon found its first case in a lethargic, vomiting cat

InternationalFeb 16. 2021

By The Washington Post · Simon Denyer

TOKYO – The Seoul government said it had found its first case of covid-19 in a cat on Monday, shortly after offering free tests to pets in the South Korean capital.

Experts say there is no evidence cats or dogs can pass the novel coronavirus to humans, but they have nevertheless placed the cat in a 14-day quarantine. It was tested after having symptoms of vomiting and decreased activity, and after the family it lives with were all found to have contracted covid-19, officials said.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced last week it would offer free coronavirus tests to symptomatic dogs and cats, shortly after a kitten at a religious facility in the southeast of the country was found to have contracted the virus.

In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says a few pets have been infected with the virus that causes covid-19, mostly after the animals were in close contact with infected humans, although globally such cases have been rare.

Since the beginning of the outbreak, scattered reports of animals contracting the disease have raised fears that pets or farmed animals such as mink could become a reservoir for the disease, prompting widespread culling in infected mink farms.

The CDC, however, says that “based on the limited available information, the risk of animals spreading the COVID-19 virus to people is considered low,” while most animals who had contracted the virus had experienced mild illness and fully recovered.

“There is no evidence that viruses can spread to people or other animals from a pet’s skin, fur or hair,” it says.

Seoul’s city government said it would provide tests only to animals that showed symptoms such as fever or breathing difficulties after coming into contact with infected humans.

The kitten found positive last month was placed into quarantine at a nearby animal shelter but did not show any symptoms, and so after 14 days was released, local health authorities said.

In an online briefing last week, disease control official Park Yoo-mi reminded people to keep their pets “at least two meters away from people and other animals when walking them.”

Research has shown that cats can spread the disease to other cats, at least in a laboratory setting.

Over the weekend, the San Diego Zoo Safari Park said a troop of western lowland gorillas had made a full recovery after several had contracted the coronavirus, but in Pakistan officials said two 11-week-old white tiger cubs appear to have died of covid-19 last month.

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Biden administration targets invisible climate threat seeping from grocery store freezers

InternationalFeb 16. 2021

By The Washington Post · Juliet Eilperin, Desmond Butler

WASHINGTON – Some of the climate impacts of a grocery store trip are obvious, like the fuel it takes to get there and the electricity that keeps its lights glowing, conveyor belts moving and scanners beeping. But then there are the invisible gases seeping out into the atmosphere when you reach for your ice cream of choice.

In nearly every supermarket in America, a network of pipes transports compressed refrigerants that keep perishable goods cold. Most of these chemicals are hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) – greenhouse gases thousands of times more powerful than carbon dioxide – which often escape through cracks or systems that were not properly installed. Once they leak, they are destined to pollute the atmosphere.

The Biden administration now sees eliminating these chemicals from the nation’s refrigerators as low-hanging fruit in its broader effort to rein in climate pollutants. The Environmental Protection Agency issued a public call last week for companies to report production and import data on HFCs.

Under the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act, which passed in December, the EPA must phase down the production and import of these potent greenhouse gases 85% over the next 15 years.

“The environmental benefits here are very large, they’re very important,” said Cindy Newberg, who directs the stratospheric protection division in the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation. The new law, she added, “provides explicit authority for us to do this work, and that’s incredibly important to the agency, and for all of us.”

A new undercover investigation by an advocacy group suggests that some supermarkets are leaking climate-damaging refrigerants at a higher rate than regulators have assumed. The industry estimates that every year supermarkets lose an average of 25% of their refrigerant charge – chemicals introduced in the 1990s to replace ones depleting Earth’s ozone layer.

Armed with high-tech sensors, undercover investigators for the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) have documented widespread leakage of HFCs at grocery stores in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia. While Walmart and other supermarket companies have pledged to curb their use of these chemicals, more than half the stores the EIA surveyed were emitting these climate-warming refrigerants.

Out of 45 supermarkets surveyed – including 20 Walmarts as well as stores operated by ALDI, Costco, Giant, Harris Teeter, Safeway, ShopRite, PriceRite, Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods – investigators found leaks in 55% of them. (Whole Foods is owned by Amazon, whose founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, owns The Washington Post.) The investigation did not determine the exact amount of HFCs released.

“This is a systemwide, industry-wide problem,” said Avipsa Mahapatra, climate lead for the EIA advocacy group. “In reality, they could easily check for this.”

None of the companies contacted for this story provided a comment on the survey itself, but a few noted their commitment to curbing these pollutants.

Whole Foods said it is “proud to be a leader among U.S. supermarkets in our efforts to reduce emissions of hydrofluorocarbons.” A little more than 30 of its stores have switched to carbon-dioxide refrigerants, and it touts one market in Brooklyn that has become 100% HFC-free.

Walmart noted that it has pledged to reach zero emissions across its operations within two decades, a goal that includes “transitioning to low-impact refrigerants for cooling and electrified equipment for heating in our stores, clubs and data and distribution centers by 2040.”

Commercial refrigeration, which includes grocery stores, restaurants and food processing, accounts for about 28% of U.S. emissions of HFCs. Air conditioning for commercial buildings and homes represents between 40% and 60% of emissions, according to federal data.

The EIA survey was based on a limited sample in one region of the United States. The investigators were also not able to measure the overall quantity and rate of leakage. But it suggests that large supermarket chains may be unaware of the extent of the problem, and do not have regular monitoring in place. In some cases, the leaks persisted months after they were detected.

The investigators, who began their survey in 2019, used leak detectors that they could insert in refrigerators and freezers as well as an infrared camera that could film fugitive greenhouse gases.

The food retail sector represents one part of the puzzle of how to drastically cut back on emissions in the coming years. HFCs trap thousands of times more heat than carbon dioxide, and with increasing sales they are projected to represent nearly a fifth of climate-warming emissions by mid-century. It’s a growing problem: The hotter Earth gets, the more people need cooling infrastructure.

According to new data released Friday, HFC emissions in the United States rose by 4 million metric tons between 2018 and 2019. The 38,000 supermarkets in the United States use thousands of pounds of HFCs each year, according to the EPA, with each store having the equivalent climate impact of 300 cars on the road. Taken together, it is equal to 49 billion pounds of coal being burned each year.

While monitoring for leaks and upgrading refrigeration systems translate into long-term savings by reducing energy use, stores operating on tight margins cannot always afford it.

Ratio Institute co-founder Jonathan Tan, whose organization works with the food retail industry, policymakers and conservationists on the issue, estimated that while it can cost a store between $50,000 to $100,000 to make repairs to a system, transitioning from current refrigerant to a less-potent greenhouse gas such as carbon dioxide can cost between $1 million and $2.5 million.

Walmart said private companies would need government help in making the transition. “We also believe that private and public sector action is needed to foster innovation and enable an economically viable phasedown of HFCs globally,” it said in a statement.

Europe is making a swifter transition than the United States. More than 26,000 supermarkets in European countries are using lower-impact refrigerants, compared with 600 stores in the United States.

The EPA has regulated earlier generations of refrigerants for decades under the 1987 Montreal Protocol, the landmark global treaty aimed at repairing the ozone layer. Those compounds – chlorofluorocarbons and hydrochlorofluorocarbons – damaged the ozone layer that shields Earth from damaging ultraviolet rays from the sun. HFCs made an appealing substitute because they did not deplete ozone, but they warmed the planet instead.

In 2016, the Obama administration helped broker the Kigali Amendment, through which countries pledged to phase down HFCs. But the agency’s effort to regulate the refrigerants ran aground during the Trump administration.

One rule identifying “unacceptable” uses of HFCs was partly overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 2017. The administration rewrote the rule, but the same court said it did not follow proper procedures and did not need to abolish the Obama-era requirements altogether. Last year, Trump officials withdrew another Obama-era rule, which required companies to detect and repair leaks from any appliance or piece of equipment using more than 50 pounds of HFCs.

President Donald Trump declined to submit the Kigali Amendment to the Senate for ratification: President Joe Biden signed an executive order last month instructing his secretary of state to take that step.

The federal government has pursued cases against grocery chains, and won, when it comes to leaks of older refrigerants that damage the ozone layer. In 2019, for example, Southeastern Grocers agreed to spend $4.2 million to reduce coolant leaks and pay a $300,000 civil penalty. But HFCs are in a different category.

“EPA’s recognized that it is a significant contributor to climate change and has tried to take action,” said Tom Land, a longtime agency staffer who retired in 2019 after working on international climate negotiations and the agency’s voluntary refrigerants program, GreenChill. “It basically had to stop; it didn’t have authority.”

Food retailers that participate in the GreenChill program have a leak rate of 14.3%, nearly half the industry average. Kristen Taddonio, senior climate and energy adviser at the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development, said in an interview that reinstating regulations mandating leak detection could help grocers make greater reductions.

“It’s like that old adage, you can’t manage what you can’t measure,” said Taddonio, who worked on energy efficiency at the EPA and the Energy Department between 2004 and 2015.