AEFYT, Association of Cold Companies and their Technologies, has adhered to the European campaign #SayNoToIllegalHFCs launched by the European Fluorocarbon Technical Committee (EFCTC), a group that is part of CEFIC, the European chemical association. The campaign seeks to promote joint action by the entire refrigerant value chain to eradicate the black market for hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which is a threat to environmental objectives in Europe, for safety by not following any type of control or traceability , for the competitiveness of companies that operate legally and for the finances of the Administration. The campaign invites the entire cold equipment supply chain to detect and report illegal products when they buy, repair or sell them.
“ A campaign at the European level was very necessary to increase the level of awareness about the enormous environmental and economic problem posed by the black market for refrigerant gases with high global warming potential (GWP) and the absolute need for customs control throughout the European Union is more efficient than up to now ”, said Manuel Lamúa, manager of AEFYT .
The cold reference association in Spain has played a very active role in denouncing the black market for HFCs refrigerants, which was increased with the entry into force of the F-Gas Regulation and, specifically in Spain, with the Tax on Fluorinated Gases Greenhouse Effect. AEFYT stands out for being one of the first associations that put figures on the problem - already in 2016 it calculated that in Spain the black market caused by the entry of product from other member states, together with uncontrolled imports from outside the EU, could reach values higher than 20% of the total HFCs traded- and that an observatory was opened to collect and report complaints from companies affected by this problem.
In 2018 AEFYT joined the European associations EPEE, EFCTC, AREA and ADC3R to request a better application of the European Regulation on Fluorinated Gases to curb the problem of illegally imported refrigerants. In addition, the writings to the Administrations, the appeals in different sectoral forums and the information distributed through its website, its blog and its newsletter on this problem are counted by dozens.
