Latin America: HFC rules in Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Argentina (Kigali group 1)

Latin America · Laws and regulations

HFC rules in Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Argentina: Kigali group 1, national import quotas in CO2e, banned HFCs, importer licences and authorities.

Last checked: November 3, 2026Last changed: November 3, 2026 – Confirmed Mexico's HFC baseline and the 2025 reserve from SEMARNAT's quota guide.

Key points

Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Argentina are not part of the EU, and the EU F-gas Regulation does not apply. HFCs are governed by the Montreal Protocol with the Kigali Amendment and by national import rules ^[1]^[12].
All four belong to Article 5, group 1: HFC consumption froze in 2024 and must fall to 90 % of the baseline in 2029, 70 % in 2035, 50 % in 2040 and 20 % from 2045 ^[12].
In all four countries HFCs may only be imported with a quota or licence. Quotas are counted in tonnes of CO2e and shared out among importers, mostly based on their past imports ^[2]^[4]^[8]^[10].
Chile's new ozone decree DS 7/2024, published on 14 April 2026, bans imports of seven HFCs, caps HFC imports at 6,698,107 t CO2e and bans HCFCs from 2030 ^[9].
For the technician the effect is indirect: buy refrigerant from importers with a quota, recover the refrigerant during service and choose low-GWP refrigerants for new systems ^[1]^[9].

The frame: the Montreal Protocol and the Kigali Amendment

The countries of Latin America are Parties to the Montreal Protocol. The 2016 Kigali Amendment adds HFCs as controlled substances and gives each country a phase-down schedule. The EU F-gas Regulation (EU) 2024/573 does not apply here. EU requirements such as CO2e-based leak checks and F-gas certificates therefore do not apply either. Instead, each country controls HFC imports with quotas and licences ^[1].

Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Argentina belong to Article 5, group 1, the standard schedule for developing countries. The schedule is set in Article 5, paragraph 8 qua, of the Protocol ^[12]:

Period	Maximum HFC consumption (in CO2e)
Baseline	Average HFC 2020–2022 plus 65 % of the HCFC baseline
2024–2028	100 % of the baseline (freeze)
2029–2034	90 %
2035–2039	70 %
2040–2044	50 %
2045 onwards	20 %

Consumption here means production plus imports minus exports. The national rules therefore mainly control imports. Each country divides its annual amount among the importers ^[1]^[2]^[4]^[8]. For comparison: Article 5 group 2 (India, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq and the Gulf states) uses the average of 2024–2026 as the baseline, freezes in 2028 and goes down to 90 % in 2032, 80 % in 2037, 70 % in 2042 and 15 % from 2047 ^[12].

Mexico: quotas from SEMARNAT

The competent authority is the environment ministry SEMARNAT (Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales). Under an agreement published in the Diario Oficial de la Federación (DOF) on 14 March 2024, HFCs in customs headings 2903.41–2903.49 are among the goods whose import and export are regulated by the authorities of the inter-ministerial commission CICOPLAFEST ^[11]. Importers apply for an HFC quota through procedure SEMARNAT-2020-071-002-A ^[2]:

An importer that imported HFCs in the baseline years 2020–2022 counts as a historical importer and applies for an initial quota.
An importer that did not import HFCs in 2019–2022 counts as a new importer and applies for a quota from a national reserve. The need must be justified.
The quota per company is calculated with a formula based on imports in 2019–2022, using customs data and the importers' annual reports ^[3].
SEMARNAT's quota guide for 2025 sets the national HFC baseline at 76,982,664 t CO2e: the average HFC consumption of 2020–2022 (63,949,877 t) plus 65 % of the HCFC baseline (13,032,787 t). The national reserve for 2025 is 7.5 % of the baseline, 5,755,556 t CO2e ^[2]^[3].

Colombia: quotas in CO2e and an environmental licence from ANLA

In Colombia imports are governed by Resolución 0130 de 2024, issued on 7 February 2024 by the environment ministry (Minambiente) and the trade ministry (MinCIT). Since 2024 HFCs and blends containing HFCs may only enter the country with an import quota ^[4]^[5].

Quotas are stated in tonnes of CO2e. The mass is converted with 100-year GWP values from the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, AR4 ^[4].
Colombia's baseline is 8,652,982 t CO2e: the average HFC consumption of 2020–2022 (6,464,688 t) plus 65 % of the HCFC baseline (2,188,294 t) ^[4].
The national quota is 8,652,982 t CO2e in 2024–2028, 7,787,684 t in 2029–2034, 6,057,087 t in 2035–2039, 4,326,491 t in 2040–2044 and 1,730,596 t from 2045 ^[4].
Each year's quota is split: 75 % to HFC importers, 10 % to former HCFC importers, 10 % to new importers and 5 % kept as a reserve ^[4].
An individual quota may only be given to a natural or legal person holding a licencia ambiental (environmental licence) for importing HFCs. The authority ANLA (Autoridad Nacional de Licencias Ambientales) publishes the allocation per importer each year; the 2026 allocation has been published ^[4]^[5].

Chile: Ley 20.096 and decree DS 7/2024

Chile's framework law is Ley 20.096 (the ozone law). Imports are governed by decree DS 7/2024 of the Ministry Secretaría General de la Presidencia, published in the Diario Oficial (no. 44.424) on 14 April 2026. It applies from publication and repeals the earlier decree DS 3/2019. The customs service checks imports, and the Unidad Ozono of the environment ministry MMA (Ministerio del Medio Ambiente) is responsible for the programme ^[6]^[9]. The decree means that:

the system of quotas and licences that already existed for HCFCs now also covers HFCs ^[6]^[9],
seven HFCs that Chile has not imported are banned: HFC-134, HFC-143, HFC-236cb, HFC-236ea, HFC-245ca, HFC-41 and HFC-152 (art. 3 c) ^[9],
total HFC imports may not exceed 6,698,107 t CO2e in 2024–2028, 6,028,296 t from 2029, 4,688,675 t from 2035, 3,349,054 t from 2040 and 1,339,621 t from 2045 (art. 5) ^[9],
HCFCs (such as R22) become banned substances from 1 January 2030, both pure and in blends and pre-blended polyols ^[9].

In Chile some HFCs may not be imported at all, and the amount of the others falls step by step. Check with the supplier that the refrigerant for a new system or a conversion is available before you choose it ^[6]^[9].

Argentina: the licence system and annual quotas

In Argentina ozone-depleting substances are regulated by Law 24.040. Decreto 1609/04 created the RIESAO register and a licence system for imports and exports of controlled substances ^[8]. The Kigali Amendment entered into force for Argentina on 20 February 2020. Resolución 104/2020 of the then environment ministry brought the HFCs of Annex F, groups I and II, into the licence system ^[7].

Resolución 15/2024 of the Ministry of the Interior (Boletín Oficial 31 January 2024) sets the rules for quotas. For HFCs, 70 % of the annual amount goes to importers with a history of imports, 15 % to new or occasional importers and 10 % to extraordinary cases (art. 14) ^[10].
An application for a quota must be made at least 120 days before the year it applies to (art. 16) ^[10].
For 2026 the Cabinet Office (Jefatura de Gabinete de Ministros) set the quotas in Resolución 8/2026, published in the Boletín Oficial on 25 February 2026. Annex I lists the quotas per importer for HCFC-22, HCFC-142b and HFCs; annex II sets a ceiling of 60,000 t CO2e for new or occasional importers ^[8].

Training and qualifications

We have not been able to confirm any national requirement in the four countries for refrigeration technicians to be certified in the way the EU F-gas certificate requires. Ask the authority or the client which qualification is required for a given job ^[1].

Practical checklist

Buy HFCs only from importers with a quota or licence, and keep the invoices. Imports without a quota are not allowed in any of the countries ^[2]^[4]^[9]^[10].
Expect HFCs to become more expensive and harder to obtain as the 2029 and 2035 steps approach ^[12].
Choose low-GWP refrigerants for systems that will run beyond 2030 ^[1].
Recover the refrigerant during service and decommissioning instead of venting it ^[1].
In Chile: check that the refrigerant is not one of the banned HFCs, and plan for R22 and other HCFCs being banned from 2030 ^[9].

Quotas change every year. Check the current rules with SEMARNAT (gob.mx/semarnat), ANLA (anla.gov.co), the Unidad Ozono (ozono.mma.gob.cl) and the Boletín Oficial (boletinoficial.gob.ar) before making decisions ^[2]^[5]^[6]^[8].

Calculate it yourself

GWP, ODP & CO2e of a refrigerant charge →Refrigerant retrofit: find alternatives →

Terms in this article

HFC (hydrofluorocarbons)GWP (global warming potential)CO2 equivalent (CO2e)HFC phase-down Refrigerant recovery