HFC Allowances

On this page:

• Background
• Issuance of 2025 HFC Allowances

Background

What is the AIM Act?

The American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act was enacted on December 27, 2020. The AIM Act directs the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to phase down production and consumption^[1] of HFCs to 15% of their baseline levels in a stepwise manner by 2036 through an allowance allocation and trading program.

How do Allowances Work?

EPA uses an allowance as the unit of measure that controls production and consumption of bulk HFCs. EPA will issue allowances that will be valid between January 1 and December 31 of a given year, known as a “calendar-year allowance.” A calendar-year allowance represents the privilege granted to an entity to produce or import bulk regulated substances (i.e., regulated HFCs) in that year.

Entities must expend allowances in order to produce or import bulk HFCs. Producing HFCs requires expending both production allowances and consumption allowances. Importing HFCs requires expending only consumption allowances. A third category of allowances called “application-specific allowances” can be used to either produce or import HFCs exclusively for use in one of the six applications listed in the AIM Act.

Entities must expend the correct number of allowances for each kilogram of HFCs that they produce and/or import. EPA has developed a calculator to help allowance holders understand how allowances translate to quantities of various HFCs they intend to produce or import.

• HFC Allowance Calculator (xlsx) (103.41 KB) 

Issuance of 2025 HFC Allowances

How do Entities Receive Allowances for 2025?

EPA issued allowances to entities that produced and/or imported HFCs in 2021 or 2022, or both 2021 and 2022, based on the three highest years of production or consumption between 2011-2019. EPA has also issued allowances to entities that were previously allocated allowances as new market entrants on March 31, 2022. EPA also issued “application-specific allowances” directly to the entities that operate within the six applications listed in the AIM Act. These entities will be able to confer their allowances to producers or importers to acquire needed HFCs.

EPA signed "Phasedown of Hydrofluorocarbons: Notice of 2025 Allowance Allocations for Production and Consumption of Regulated Substances under the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act of 2020," on October 1, 2024, to provide notice in the Federal Register of EPA’s allocation of calendar year 2025 allowances. EPA published "Phasedown of Hydrofluorocarbons: Notice of 2025 Allowance Allocations for Production and Consumption of Regulated Substances under the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act of 2020, and Notice of Final Actions Establishing Administrative Consequences" in the Federal Register on October 23, 2024.

• Federal Register link to the Notice of 2025 Allowance Allocations for Production and Consumption of HFCs
• Overview of Allowances and Exchange Values (pdf) (171.22 KB)

How Did Finalized Administrative Consequences Affect the Number of Allowances Available?

EPA finalized a number of independent administrative consequences effective September 30, 2024 (see the full list of finalized administrative consequences). These final actions retired, revoked, or withheld application-specific, production, or consumption allowances. In the instances where EPA revoked calendar year 2025 consumption allowances, the allowances are taken back from an allowance holder and redistributed to all other allowance holders. EPA redistributed consumption allowances that were revoked to consumption allowance holders that were not subject to a final administrative consequence effective September 30, 2024, or had an administrative consequence solely withholding allowances.

EPA had also previously finalized a number of separate, independent administrative consequences effective September 29, 2023 (see the full list of finalized administrative consequences). Some of these previously finalized actions also revoked calendar year 2025 consumption allowances, and EPA redistributed consumption allowances that were revoked to consumption allowance holders that were not subject to a final administrative consequence effective September 29, 2023, or had an administrative consequence solely withholding allowances.

Accordingly, the Agency’s announcement of allowances includes the number of available application-specific, production, and consumption allowances as of October 1, 2024, for all eligible allowance holders due to finalized administrative consequences. More information is also available in the Federal Register Notice to announce EPA’s issuance of calendar year 2025 allowances.

Application-specific Allowance Allocations for 2025

The figure and table below illustrate the application-specific allowances allocated to each entity for calendar year 2025. In the figure, click on an application (i.e., inner slice) to view all entities allocated allowances for that application along with their respective allowances. Click the inner circle again to return to the full figure. Hover over any slice to view the allowances allocated for that entity or application.

Distribution of Application-specific HFC Allowances for 2025

Application-specific HFC Allowances for 2025

¹ These values account for administrative consequences for certain entities that are effective on September 30, 2024. Additional details can be found in the Federal Register notice and on EPA’s administrative consequences webpage.
² This has been updated effective October 15, 2024, to reflect the allocation of previously-withheld allowances. For more information, see Administrative Consequences Under the HFC Allocation Rule.

Consumption Allowance Allocations for 2025

The figures and table below illustrate the consumption allowances allocated to each entity for calendar year 2025. The first figure shows allowances for entities receiving greater than 0.5% of all consumption allowances and aggregates those entities receiving fewer than 0.5% of all consumption allowances. The second figure shows allowances for entities receiving less than 0.5% of all consumption allowances (i.e., those aggregated in the first figure). In the figures, hover over an entity (i.e., slice) to view its allowances. In the legend, double click on an entity to show only that entity in the pie chart. Click on an entity in the legend to hide it from the pie chart, and click it again to add it back.

Distribution of HFC Consumption Allowances for 2025, with Entities Receiving <0.5% Aggregated

Distribution of HFC Consumption Allowances for 2025, Showing Only Entities Receiving <0.5%

HFC Consumption Allowances Allocated and Available for 2025

¹ These values account for administrative consequences for certain entities that became effective on September 29, 2023, and September 30, 2024. Additional details can be found in the Federal Register notice and on EPA’s administrative consequences webpage.
² This has been updated effective October 15, 2024, to reflect the allocation of previously-withheld allowances. For more information, see Administrative Consequences Under the HFC Allocation Rule.
³ This has been updated effective November 1, 2024, to reflect the allocation of previously-withheld allowances. For more information, see Administrative Consequences Under the HFC Allocation Rule.
⁴ For more details, see Application-specific allowances allocated under 40 CFR 84.13.

Production Allowance Allocations for 2025

The figure and table below illustrate the production allowances allocated to each entity for calendar year 2025. In the figure, hover over an entity (i.e., slice) to view its allowances. In the legend, double click on an entity to show only that entity in the pie chart. Click on an entity in the legend to hide it from the pie chart, and click it again to add it back.

Distribution of HFC Production Allowances for 2025

HFC Production Allowances Allocated and Available for 2025

¹ These values account for administrative consequences for certain entities that became effective on September 30, 2024. Additional details can be found in the Federal Register notice and on EPA’s administrative consequences webpage.
² For more details, see Application-specific allowances allocated under 40 CFR 84.13.

Frequent Questions on the Phasedown of HFCs