Repeated Refrigerant Refills Expose Gaps in South Korea's Climate Oversight

Five years of refills put major facilities under scrutiny

A logistics center in Yongin recorded refrigerant replenishment equivalent to 450,305 tonnes of carbon dioxide between 2021 and 2025, the largest total identified in an analysis of South Korean refrigerant management records. At LG Chem's Yeosu vinyl chloride monomer plant, the five-year total reached 354,146 tonnes, with an average annual replenishment rate recorded as 88.1%.

Climate group Plan 1.5 examined Korea Environment Corporation records and identified 24 businesses whose annual replenishment exceeded 5,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in at least three of those five years. South Korea had 5,303 businesses subject to refrigerant management in 2025.

The repeated refills point to a practical problem: refrigerants circulate inside cooling equipment and should stay there when the equipment is properly sealed. Escapes through pipes, valves or other connections can leave operators needing to add more gas, sometimes year after year.

The records use replenishment as a measure of leakage. Actual atmospheric emissions depend on how much refrigerant is recovered during servicing and how equipment is recharged. The facility figures below are therefore replenishment totals expressed in carbon dioxide equivalent, the common unit used to compare the warming effects of different gases.

South Korea's government estimates that emissions of fluorinated gases used as refrigerants, including hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), reached 36.28 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2025. That was about 57% above the 23.1 million tonnes recorded in 2018.

Large replenishment totals, recurring refills and rising national emissions place pressure on an oversight system that currently covers just 1.5% of the country's estimated commercial and industrial cooling units. Changes planned from 2027 would bring smaller equipment into the system and give authorities additional powers to require inspections and improvements.

Which facilities recorded the largest amounts?

The Yongin Namsa logistics center combined the largest cumulative replenishment total, 450,305 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, with an average annual rate of 16%. Hanwha Solutions' Yeosu plant recorded 325,202 tonnes over five years and an average annual rate of 12.6%.

LG Chem's Yeosu vinyl chloride monomer plant had a smaller cumulative total than the logistics center but a much higher average annual rate, at 88.1%. Reading the amount and the rate together helps explain the scale of the problem: a large cooling system can require a substantial quantity of replacement refrigerant even when its percentage rate is lower.

Lotte Chilsung Beverage's Gunsan plant replenished refrigerant in all five years. Its cumulative total was 64,115 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, and its average annual rate was 59.1%. Daesang's Hoengseong plant also recorded replenishment every year, totaling 46,507 tonnes, with an average annual rate of 39.5%.

The three facilities with the largest totals together recorded 1,129,653 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in replenishment over the period. Lotte Chilsung and Daesang illustrate another concern: repeated additions can persist across an entire five-year record, rather than appearing as an isolated maintenance event.

Why a cooling gas can carry a large climate cost

HFCs help refrigerators, air conditioners and industrial systems move heat from one place to another. Inside a sealed system, the refrigerant repeatedly absorbs and releases heat. Operators normally should not need to replace it simply because the equipment has been running.

Some HFCs have a warming potential more than 10,000 times that of carbon dioxide. Solutions for Our Climate (SFOC), in its March 2025 refrigerant report, gives an upper figure of 12,400 times. The warming strength varies by substance, which is why identifying the refrigerant matters when calculating its climate impact.

Carbon dioxide equivalent converts a quantity of gas into the amount of carbon dioxide with a comparable warming effect. A recorded total of 64,115 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent describes the climate weight of the replenishment, rather than the physical weight of refrigerant delivered to a plant.

National emissions rose while growth slowed

The Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Research Center, part of the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, puts 2025 refrigerant-related fluorinated gas emissions at 36.28 million tonnes in its provisional emissions estimate. The total increased 3.9% from the previous year.

The ministry attributes the rise to unusually hot weather, growth in the cold chain industry and leakage from refrigerant already held in equipment. The cold chain is the network of refrigerated warehouses, vehicles and other facilities that keeps food and other temperature-sensitive goods cold during storage and transport.

Refrigerant installed in earlier years can remain in equipment for a long time. As the amount held across the country's cooling systems grows, leakage from that accumulated stock can continue to push emissions upward.

The annual growth rate eased from 4.5% in 2023–2024 to 3.9% in 2024–2025. The ministry cited measures including the gradual reduction of HFCs under the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol. Even with slower growth, the 2025 total was 13.18 million tonnes above the 2018 level.

Current oversight reaches a small share of equipment

South Korea's existing refrigerant management rules apply to certain equipment with a cooling capacity of at least 20 refrigeration tons. A refrigeration ton measures cooling power, rather than the weight of the machine or the refrigerant inside it.

The system covers 15,153 units out of an estimated 990,000 commercial and industrial units, about 1.5%. The coverage figure concerns equipment numbers; the separate count of 5,303 refers to businesses subject to management in 2025.

Operators of covered equipment must inspect for leaks, carry out maintenance and submit records. Violations can incur fines of no more than 1 million won. Management also relies on businesses reporting their own refrigerant use and maintenance activity.

That reliance creates a verification problem when an operator reports zero replenishment. Authorities need a way to check the equipment and its servicing history to determine whether the submitted record accurately describes what happened. Repeated large refills create a different enforcement task: identifying recurring faults and checking whether repairs have stopped them.

The 24 businesses identified by Plan 1.5 represent roughly 0.45% of the 5,303 businesses under management. Their importance lies in the repeated scale of replenishment at particular sites, while the much wider equipment coverage gap leaves authorities with a limited view of refrigerant use across the country.

What is planned to change in 2027?

From 2027, the government plans to lower the threshold for covered equipment from 20 refrigeration tons to 10. This would extend management requirements to smaller cooling systems, although the number of additional units to be covered has not been specified.

Equipment with a cooling capacity of at least 300 refrigeration tons would require inspections twice a year. Authorities would also be able to order leak inspections and facility improvements when annual replenishment exceeds 15% of capacity.

The five-year average rates at the Yongin Namsa logistics center, LG Chem's Yeosu plant, Lotte Chilsung's Gunsan plant and Daesang's Hoengseong plant were all above 15%. The planned intervention rule concerns annual replenishment, so officials would need to examine each year's records when applying it.

Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Tae-seon called for an overhaul that closes gaps in refrigerant oversight and tracks the full distribution chain. His proposal includes closer supervision of repeated leaks and inaccurate reporting by large businesses.

Checking the distribution chain means following refrigerant beyond a single piece of equipment, from supply and installation through servicing, recovery and disposal. Connecting those records would give authorities more ways to compare the quantity sold, the quantity added to machines and the quantity recovered.

Two targets address different parts of the problem

South Korea's 2035 refrigerant emissions target is 25.5 million to 27.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. Reaching that range from the 2025 estimate of 36.28 million tonnes would require a reduction of approximately 24.5% to 29.7%.

The target would still leave emissions above the 2018 level of 23.1 million tonnes. Even the lower end, 25.5 million tonnes, is 2.4 million tonnes higher. This makes control of recurring leakage relevant to both the immediate reduction effort and the country's longer climate goals.

SFOC says South Korea must reduce HFC consumption by 80% by 2045 against average consumption during 2020–2022 under the Kigali Amendment. Consumption measures the supply and use of HFCs, while emissions measure gas released into the atmosphere. Reducing new HFC use and containing refrigerant already inside equipment address different parts of the same problem.

The key dates span past records and future policy commitments:

• 2018: Refrigerant-related fluorinated gas emissions stood at 23.1 million tonnes.
• 2020–2022: The consumption period used for South Korea's Kigali reduction baseline.
• 2021–2025: The five years of refrigerant records examined by Plan 1.5.
• 2027: Planned expansion of equipment coverage and inspection powers.
• 2035: Refrigerant emissions target of 25.5 million to 27.4 million tonnes.
• 2045: HFC consumption reduction of 80% against the Kigali baseline.

Recovery and replacement need attention too

SFOC describes South Korea as the world's fifth-largest producer of refrigeration and air conditioning equipment. Its March 13, 2025 report says more than 95% of refrigerant products used in the country are based on HFCs or hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs).

HFCs became alternatives to chemicals that damaged the ozone layer, the part of the atmosphere that helps protect people from harmful ultraviolet radiation. The Kigali Amendment, adopted in 2016, brought HFCs into the Montreal Protocol's controls because of their warming effect.

SFOC recommends stronger recovery and disposal management when equipment reaches the end of its working life. Removing refrigerant before dismantling a machine can keep gas remaining inside it from escaping during disposal. Servicing and replacement therefore matter alongside inspections of equipment still in use.

The institution also recommends incentives to move toward natural refrigerants, oversight across the full life of refrigerants and more complete emissions statistics by product group and stage of use. It proposes considering a comprehensive law covering fluorinated greenhouse gases.

Better records would connect the facility findings with national estimates. Product information identifies which gas is being used, while records of installation, refilling, recovery and disposal help show where it moves and where losses occur.

Refrigerants run against the national emissions trend

South Korea's total greenhouse gas emissions fell 0.9% in 2025 to 685.71 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, according to the government estimate. Industry, transport, agriculture and waste recorded declines, while refrigerants, buildings and electricity generation recorded increases.

Buildings emitted 45 million tonnes, up 3.3%. The ministry linked that rise to greater heating demand and city gas consumption. Building electricity use also increased 1.6% as cooling equipment spread and heating shifted toward electricity.

The government's planned expansion of heat pumps and renewable heat sits alongside its promise to strengthen refrigerant management throughout their life cycle. Heat pumps move heat to warm buildings and generally use a refrigerant circuit, making containment relevant as heating systems change.

The Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Research Center says South Korea needs to reduce emissions by a further 149 million tonnes by 2030 to meet its national target. Refrigerant-related emissions of 36.28 million tonnes account for about 5.3% of the 2025 national gross total, making the sector a meaningful part of that effort.

Choi Min-ji, director of the center, said the government would develop a national strategy and a second national basic plan with sector and annual targets for the 2035 commitment. She also described the planned approach to checking progress:

The government plans to strengthen annual implementation reviews.

Annual reviews offer a point at which rising refrigerant emissions, equipment coverage and the results of ordered repairs can be assessed together. The national figures show the scale of emissions; the recurring facility records identify specific places where closer inspection and maintenance could help reduce losses.

Key Points

• Plan 1.5 identified 24 businesses with refrigerant replenishment above 5,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in at least three years between 2021 and 2025.
• The Yongin Namsa logistics center recorded the largest five-year replenishment total, equivalent to 450,305 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
• National refrigerant-related fluorinated gas emissions reached 36.28 million tonnes in 2025, up 3.9% from 2024 and about 57% from 2018.
• Current oversight covers 15,153 units, about 1.5% of estimated commercial and industrial cooling equipment.
• Changes planned from 2027 would cover smaller equipment and allow inspection and improvement orders when annual replenishment exceeds 15% of capacity.
• The 2035 refrigerant emissions target requires a reduction from 2025 levels but remains above the sector's 2018 total.