Just weeks after we released our report Fake, Frauds and F-gases, exposing illegal F-gas trade in Italy, the Italian Government has announced it will implement the EU Environmental Crime Directive. This long-awaited step will tighten penalties for those illegally producing, importing or placing fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-gases) such as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) on the market. HFCs […]
Climate-damaging refrigerant gases such as hydrofluorocarbons – more commonly called HFCs – are being phased out, but this has created an opportunity for widescale illegal trade that criminals have been quick to exploit. This chemical black market is worth hundreds of millions of euros a year in lost profits to legitimate suppliers and our investigators found […]
Illegal climate-damaging refrigerant gases worth hundreds of millions of euros a year in lost profits to legitimate suppliers are entering Italy via organised criminal networks, penetrating major supply chains including manufacturing, supermarkets and the state railway. In our new report Fakes, Fraud and F-gases, we reveal the findings of our Climate team’s latest investigations into […]
LONDON: Illegal climate-damaging refrigerant gases worth hundreds of millions of euros a year in lost profits to legitimate suppliers are entering Italy via organised criminal networks, penetrating major supply chains including manufacturing, supermarkets and the state railway. In the new report Fakes, Fraud and F-gases, the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) reveals the findings of […]
Last year, authorities in Vietnam indicted a total of 22 defendants for the crimes of smuggling, bribes, fraud and the abuse of public power related to the illegal trade of approximately $71 million worth of timber from January 2021 to January 2024. This case included 13,376 containers of wood veneers made from acacia, eucalyptus, rubberwood […]
A new joint investigation by Topten, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and ECODES reveals that residential heat pumps using natural refrigerants are no longer just a future promise – they are already a reality in Europe. The research found more than 310 air-to-water heat pump models using natural refrigerants such as propane (R-290) and carbon […]