Climate-friendly refrigerants

The EEB is working with the Environmental Investigation Agency and other NGOs to promote alternative solutions to ozone-depleting, climate-destroying, and polluting refrigerants, which account for 2.5% of EU climate emissions and are the main source of PFAS, the so-called persistent organic pollutants.

These gases are mainly used in foams, heat pumps, refrigerators, and freezers and are potent climate killers: some have a global warming potential up to 14,000 times higher than CO2.

The F-gas Regulation 517/2014 was the basis for a global agreement that is now reducing the use of these chemicals around the world, but more ambition was needed to align this legislation with the EU’s 2030 climate goals and 2050 climate neutrality target.

On a global scale, this issue is not only about avoiding the 1.5 degrees temperature increase, but also about climate justice. Demand for refrigerants is growing, particularly in developing countries, which rely on a handful of transnational corporations to supply these expensive chemicals.

Thanks also to our advocacy, the EU adopted the new F-Gas Regulation 576/2024, a landmark piece of EU climate legislation to move away from super-greenhouse gases and harmful chemicals in many sectors. The regulation promotes patent-free, climate and nature-friendly solutions, and introduces a phase-out of fluorinated gases by 2050.

The EEB is working through its members to ensure that national governments implement the new regulation swiftly and thoroughly and is supporting international efforts to take the ambitious provisions of the European legislation to a global level, notably through the Montreal Protocol.