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 […]
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 […]
The European Chemical Agency (ECHA) has published its expert opinions in support of EU-wide restrictions on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS, also known as ‘forever chemicals’), including fluorinated gases. The long-awaited opinions were drawn up by its Risk Assessment Committee (RAC) and Socio-Economic Analysis Committee (SEAC) on the proposed EU universal PFAS restriction. The proposal […]
Forests are often talked about as places of nature and wildlife, but they are also deeply connected to our economies and everyday lives. This year’s International Day of Forests (21 March) highlights the link between forests and the economy and the reality is simple – when forests are healthy, economies are more stable; when forests […]
As the latest rupture in an increasingly unstable geopolitical landscape, military strikes on Iran by the USA and Israel will likely increase pressure on the world’s ability to feed itself – and it begins with synthetic fertilisers. It is barely more than century since the Haber-Bosch process was developed and the industrial production of ammonia […]
We are grateful for the additional contributions to this blog from Solomon Njoroge In December, I travelled to Kenya’s Dandora dumpsite outside the capital Nairobi with colleagues from EIA. We were there with a specific purpose – to understand what synthetic textile exports look like at the end of their journey. We did not […]