Anyone has a reference about that? Last time I tried to research it, it seems like it was mostly fixed at least in Europe with the most harmful gases being banned for new sales.
R-410A, commonly used in Europe, has a GWP of 2088. Worldwide, R-22 still is the most common refrigerant. That’s a HCFC, so stratospheric ozone depleting, and with a GWP of 1960.
https://climate.ec.europa.eu/eu-action/fluorinated-greenhous... is the list of alternatives with corresponding GWP for EU.
Not saying the phase-out isn’t happening, but there are, and there will be for quite some time, millions of units leaking climate pollutants (which was the question).
These same smooth-brains are probably extolling the benefits of heat pump water heaters not realizing they have the equivalent of an AC attached to them.
If your unit leaks refrigerant it needs to be repaired. This is not normal.
But sometimes they do.
We don't use this outlier data to refer to them as conflagrations-on-wheels and assert it's a normal function of the device just to strengthen our biased case.
Car air conditioners maybe, but it seems unbelievable for fixed systems of any reasonable quality…
They definitely aren't supposed to leak.
AC should be as sealed as a fridge, and you don't hear people having to recharge their fridges every few years.
Even ignoring the environmental concerns of refrigerant leaks, it's wasteful of your money too.