Chile’s Ministry of the Environment has issued a public call for information related to the use of synthetic refrigerants and alternative technologies as part of the country’s development of a new HFC emission standard.
The Ozone Unit, the division of the ministry facilitating the process, is seeking information on HFC use and consumption, alternative technologies, implementation costs, emission reduction and management practices and sectoral experiences. A specific focus is being placed on large refrigeration systems, with information sought about their refrigerant use and consumption, low-impact technologies, retrofit costs and leak management and reduction strategies.
The Ozone Unit is accepting technical, scientific, economic and social sources of information. The deadline to submit information is May 16, 2026, and submissions should be sent to carbonmarkets@mma.gob.cl with oficinadepartes@mma.gob.cl in CC.
A public call for information is laid out in Exempt Resolution 9634, a Chilean government document detailing the process and steps behind the creation of a draft HFC emission standard. A draft of the standard is to be ready no more than 18 months after the resolution’s publication date of January 16, 2026.
The public comments will be treated as foundational sources of information, per the resolution. Additional foundational sources of information will include an inventory of refrigerants used in air-conditioning in large commercial and industrial areas of Chile and an inventory of HFCs and their alternatives in mobile air-conditioning, refrigerated transport and the supermarket sector.
Natural refrigerants in Chile
A robust HFC emission standard would go a long way accelerating the use of natural refrigerants in Chile, particularly in commercial and industrial refrigeration where they already have a small foothold. Cencosud, a Chilean food retailer with stores in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru and the U.S., operates 22 stores with transcritical CO2 (R744) refrigeration systems. Of those 22 stores, 17 are in Chile.
Notable installations on the industrial front include Marine Farm’s 2MW (569TR)-capacity ammonia (R717) refrigeration system. In 2023 the Chilean fish producer replaced its aging R22-based refrigeration system with an ammonia one, cutting its annual energy consumption by 360MWh and reducing its annual operating costs by approximately $70,000 (€59,000).
More recently, the Ozone Unit announced a pilot project that would provide public funding for transcritical CO2 heat pumps in industrial refrigeration. The pilot program will run until May 2028, with funding provided by the Montreal Protocol’s Multilateral Fund.
Latin America had 840 total sites (710 food retail stores and 130 industrial sites) using transcritical CO2 refrigeration systems in December 2025, according to ATMOsphere’s “Refrigeration: Commercial and Industrial Refrigeration with Natural Refrigerants” report. ATMOsphere is the publisher of NaturalRefrigerants.com.
