- Illegal trade in greenhouse gases threatens US climate change goals.
- Refrigerant smuggling has been going on since the 1990s, when regulations to plug the ozone hole were introduced.
- The unprecedented indictment on cross-border greenhouse gas emissions shows the United States is stepping up its crackdown.
Many legitimate businesses are driving the climate crisis. All industries that run on fossil fuels and cow burp are contributing to rising global temperatures, putting lives and economies at risk for decades to come. However, a black market for greenhouse gases is also emerging.
The underground trade briefly came to light on Monday when the Justice Department charged a San Diego man with smuggling hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).
HFCs are commonly used in refrigerators and air conditioners, but they are also powerful greenhouse gases. In the atmosphere, its warming effect can be hundreds to thousands of times greater than carbon dioxide. Therefore, their import is strictly regulated.
According to the indictment, Michael Hart bought the chemicals in Mexico, hid them in his truck under a tarp while driving back to the United States, posted them on OfferUp and Facebook Marketplace, and sold them for a profit. claims.
“This is the first time the Department of Justice has prosecuted someone for illegally importing greenhouse gases,” U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath said in a statement. “This isn't the last time.”
Since the 1990s, a black market for climate-changing refrigerant chemicals has flourished, sometimes as lucrative as selling cocaine. Time is running out to avert catastrophic climate change, but Hart's case is just the first in a new collective government effort to end this illegal business once and for all.
New chemicals brought new problems
Unlike the case of hearts, Greenhouse gases often end up in shipping containers, which are intentionally labeled as something else, experts told Business Insider.
This smuggling technique has continued for two decades and three generations of refrigerants, starting with chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). These chemicals famously burned a hole in the ozone layer until the 1987 Montreal Protocol, in which 24 countries agreed to phase out the chemicals. The next generation of refrigerants, hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), are now being replaced by HFCs.
“They're all produced in the same factories, they're all used in the same types of products, and they're all distributed through the same channels,” argues David Doniger, senior federal strategist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. The company told Business Insider it is working to halt production of each of these chemicals.
Unlike previous HFCs, HFCs do not puncture the ozone layer, but are still considered super-pollutants due to their aggressive heat-trapping abilities. As a result, many countries are currently phasing out their use.
According to the EPA, eliminating HFCs could avoid up to 0.5 degrees Celsius of global warming by 2100. That may sound small, but world leaders are determined to limit warming to 1.5 degrees because 2 degrees has far more devastating effects on human health and political and economic stability. Don't forget what you're aiming for. That 0.5 degree is important.
Smuggling puts this goal at risk, Abipsa Mahapatra, head of climate campaigns at the Environmental Research Agency, told Business Insider.
A new anti-smuggling headquarters is cracking down on it.
In 2021, the EPA, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, Department of Justice, and other government agencies established an interagency task force aimed at interdicting the illegal importation of HFCs.
In 2022 alone, the task force seized enough illegal HFCs to emit 889,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. This is the equivalent of his electricity supplying 173,000 homes for one year.
“That's just the tip of the iceberg,” Mahapatra said.
Because both task forces are relatively new, it's difficult to say how much HFCs smugglers are bringing into the United States.
In addition to Hart's case, the Justice Department announced charges this month alleging a woman tried to smuggle four 24-pound HFC cylinders. Her indictment says she was paid $100 to take them across the border from Mexico.
Two recent incidents at the U.S.-Mexico border may be due, in part, to Mexico's slower HFC phase-out schedule than the U.S. and the country's large stockpiles of the chemical. There is. This creates a new route in addition to shipping container smuggling.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California, which is prosecuting both cases, said: “The black market appears to have been created by the treaty's regulatory scheme, which sets different phase-out schedules for the United States and Mexico.” he told Business Insider via email.
The situation “creates significant price differentials due to U.S. supply constraints that do not exist in Mexico,” the statement added. “We will continue to prosecute these cases.”
“Ultimately, the illegal trade in HFCs is driven by continued consumer demand,” Mahapatra said. For example, an appliance repair company might buy them to refill a customer's air conditioner with refrigerant.
The EPA is allowing some importers to continue importing HFCs legally, and consumers do not have to abandon their existing appliances just because they run on HFCs.
next generation refrigerant
Doniger said the black market “comes with an area” of regulation. The same thing happened in the 1990s when the US was phasing out CFCs.
A 1996 New York Times article said that smuggling CFCs was “more lucrative than cocaine.” A $42 can of Freon gas could sell for $550.
By 2002, the United States had convicted 114 people for illegally importing chemicals. A refrigerant company was fined more than $37 million for importing more than 4,000 tons of CFCs.
At the height of the CFC black market, many cars still used those refrigerants in their air conditioners. With fewer pre-1993 vehicles on the road, the demand for these refrigerants has decreased.
Eventually, something similar could happen with HFCs. Proposed alternative refrigerants include ammonia, propane, isobutane, CO2, and hydrofluoroolefins (HFOs), many of which are currently used in European refrigerators and air conditioners.
“We think the real solution is to find systemic change,” Mahapatra said. “We can't keep using these super pollutants in our refrigerators, air conditioners, and cars.”
