When the international community finally moved to control the production of CFCs and HCFCs through the Montreal Protocol, the chemical industry took it as a challenge to develop new products to maintain its lucrative worldwide monopoly. HFCs pose no direct threat to the ozone layer, but are very powerful global warming gases. They also have other negative environmental impacts. Clearly, HFCs can not be the solution to ozone depletion. They merely replace the ozone crisis with yet another environmental disaster.
Products utilizing safer alternatives for virtually every application of CFCs and HCFCs exist.
For example, in refrigeration and air conditioning, these products use natural refrigerants, such as hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide, air, water and ammonia. Despite the political and economic machinations of the chemical companies, environmentally safer substances and technologies are finding their way into the marketplace. They are a poor investment for both industrialized and developing countries, and most certainly for the planet.