Luxembourg reveals F-gas non-compliance

LUXEMBOURG: Company checks carried out by Luxembourg’s Environment Agency have revealed 75% to be non-compliant with the European F-gas and ozone-depleting substances regulations.

Checks across 43 companies in 2024 found 32 to be non-compliant. The non-compliance related to areas such as staff certification, gas cylinder labelling, and mandatory leak test documentation. The figures indicate that some companies were non-compliant across more than one category.

While most related to poor paperwork, others were more serious. In the case of six companies, their certification address was no longer up to date.

Twenty-four companies had failed to notify the Environment Agency of changes in their workforce of individuals holding active F-gas certifications, while mandatory leak inspection reports were incorrect or missing in the case of 19 companies.

In nine cases, air conditioning equipment located within companies was not approved and/or was not labelled in accordance with the required information and/or leak tests were either not performed or not performed at the required frequency.

More serious was the discovery of the long-banned ozone depleting HCFC refrigerant R22 at two companies inspected. The companies concerned were ordered to send the refrigerant for destruction.

Since the checks, 14 of the companies have rectified the issues, while the Environment Agency continues to monitor the remaining cases.

Luxembourg is one of the smallest EU member states by population – only beaten to the bottom spot by Malta – and it is unclear how representative this is of states across the EU.