Illegal Trade in Greenhouse Gases (hydrofluorocarbons) Rampant in EU—Report

China used to have a sweet little racket in carbon credits for HFC reduction. One approach was to set up HFC factories simply to get the credits for shutting them down. Another slightly more brazen approach was used in 2011: "China Threatens Massive Venting of Super Greenhouse Gases in Attempt to Extort Billions as UNFCCC Meeting Approaches".

Good times.
Now though, with the diminished political power  of the carbon traders it's back to old-fashioned smuggling
From the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project:

EU’s tight regulations of greenhouse gases seem to have caused an eruption of criminal trade of hydrofluorocarbons (HFC), synthetic chemicals hundreds of thousands of times stronger than carbon dioxide and used in many common household products, according to a new report published Tuesday by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a UK-based NGO.

HFC gases are used in common appliances like refrigerators and air-conditioners, as well as in fire protection, aerosols and foams. The EU instituted a global “phase-down” of fluorinated gases (‘F-gases’), which includes HFCs, in 2014, and by 2030 hopes to cut F-gas emissions by two-thirds compared with 2014 levels, according to a European Commission factsheet.

While F-gases account for only two percent of the EU’s overall greenhouse gas emissions, their emissions have risen by 60 percent since 1990, while all other greenhouse gas emissions have reduced. 

The projected emission savings are 1.5 gigatonnes by 2030 and five gigatonnes by 2050, according to the EC factsheet. The latter figure is more than all the CO2 produced by a billion return flights from Paris to New York and more than the sum of all greenhouse gases emitted in the EU in a single year. 

“Cutting HFC use is one of the most effective tools to help prevent runaway climate change – but its impact could be significantly undermined by illegal trade,” Clare Perry, Climate Campaigns Leader at EIA, said in a press release. 

And despite restricting legislation, EIA’s new report says that trade in HFCs is actually on the rise, with 2018 in particular “witnessing a deluge” of illegal HFC use and trade across the EU. 

EIA says reports of illegal (non-quota) HFCs in the EU began to surface as early as 2016, and in spite of significant stockpiling of HFCs in 2014 before the EU regulation went into effect that same year. 

The multinational conglomerate Honeywell, a major producer of HFCs, said that 10 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent HFCs was illegally imported in 2015, more than five percent of the total quota. Scores of reports on illegal HFC use and trade have been made since....MORE

Back in the day HFC's were hailed as a partial replacement for the ozone depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's) but as some fancy detective work last year showed, China is also back in the business of manufacturing CFC's, supposedly banned by the Montreal Protocol.
We have dozens of posts on HFC's, use the 'search blog' box if interested.