Episode

How this super pollutant became as ‘lucrative as cocaine’

Podcast: Living Planet
Published: Jun 5, 2026
Duration seconds: 1570
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Summary

At some point today, you’ve probably used an appliance that relies on HFCs, also known as refrigerants. They're many times more potent than CO2, which is why the EU, US and others are phasing them out. Planet A reporter Tim Schauenberg went undercover to explore the black-market boom in these gases now worth hundreds of millions of euros in Europe alone.