Fluorinated gases and ozone-depleting substances: how to do business from 1 January 2021.

The UK has left the EU, and the transition period after Brexit comes to an end this year, so what will you need to do from 1 January 2021. Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) will regulate fluorinated greenhouse gases (F gas) and ozone-depleting substances (ODS) from 1 January 2021. F gas and ODS are substances used mainly as refrigerants, but also in other products

This guide is for businesses and individuals active in Great Britain (GB) who currently need to follow EU regulations:

• 517/2014 on fluorinated greenhouse gases

• 1005/2009 on substances that deplete the ozone layer

New GB ODS and F gas regulations transfer most of the requirements of the EU regulations into UK law.  Most of the rules for F gas and ODS will not change. However, you will need to use new GB IT systems to: 

• manage new GB quotas

• report on use

You’ll still need to comply with EU regulations on F gas, ODS and products containing them that you place on the EU and Northern Ireland market after 1 January 2021. Businesses preparing for 1 January 2021 should continue to work with the Environment Agency to register on the GB system and apply for GB quotas.

Updated guidance on arrangements will be published from 1 January 2021.

From 1 January 2021 you’ll need a GB HFC quota if your business places on the GB market HFCs equivalent to 100 tonnes or more of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year. This total includes any imports to GB from the EU or Northern Ireland.  The regulator will manage a new GB F gas system, including GB HFC quota allocation which you’ll use to: 

• apply for a GB quota

• report on your activities

If you registered before with the Environment Agency’s F gas team in 2019, you’ll receive an email during October about your registration for the new GB F gas system from January 2021.

If you have not previously registered, you can register on the new GB F gas system yourself.

You’ll still need to register on the new GB F gas system, but you will not usually need a quota for HFCs if you:

• import to destroy

• recycle or reclaim them from within GB

• produce or import for subsequent export from GB, including to the EU

• produce or import or use F gas for feedstock, military equipment, semiconductor materials or metered dose inhalers

Requirements in GB will also not change on:

• the individual qualifications and company certifications you need to install, service, maintain, repair, decommission or check for leaks in certain equipment or the recover F gas

• the content and requirements of training and certification programmes

• the validity of existing certificates and training attestations, including those issued by EU member states both before and after 1 January 2021.New ODS quota system

Great Britain will manage its own ODS quota system from 1 January 2021.

If you produce, import or export ODS, or products containing ODS, from exit day you’ll need to apply for a:

• GB quota to place them on the GB market

• EU quota to place them on the EU and Northern Ireland market

Sept 2020