Brazil’s Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change has announced approval of Stage I of the national Hydrofluorocarbon Consumption Reduction Program. The strategy supports implementation of the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol and targets HFC use in refrigeration and air-conditioning applications.
Stage I aims to reduce HFC consumption by 10% by 2029 and 12% by 2032 against the established baseline. The ministry said this represents a reduction of 8,747,722 metric tons of CO2 equivalent (approximately 9.64 million US short tons).
Planned measures include replacing high-GWP refrigerants with lower-GWP alternatives, including hydrocarbons, CO2, NH3 and hydrofluoroolefins. The program also covers regulatory measures, manufacturing conversion projects, automotive air-conditioning leak prevention, professional certification, technician training and the safe handling of alternative refrigerants.
Additional actions will address the HFC lifecycle, including the environmentally appropriate disposal of equipment and substances, as well as refrigerant recovery, recycling and reclamation. The measures cover domestic, commercial, automotive and industrial refrigeration and air-conditioning segments.
Brazil committed to freezing HFC consumption from 2024 and reducing it by up to 80% by 2045. The government estimates that implementation of the Kigali Amendment could avoid approximately 58.3 million metric tons of direct HFC emissions in CO2 equivalent between 2024 and 2045 (approximately 64.3 million US short tons).
Brazil negotiated approximately US$26.5 million for the planned actions. The program is coordinated by the ministry and implemented with UNDP as the lead agency, together with UNIDO and GIZ, using resources from the Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol. Ibama is responsible for enforcement and control of substance imports.
