Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), as the name suggests, are compounds containing hydrogen, fluorine, and carbon. They are used for residential and commercial heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) as refrigerants, by firefighters as a fire suppressant, and in aerosols as propellants.

HFCs are also greenhouse gases often described in terms of their Global Warming Potential (GWP), which is the tendency of a substance to persist in the environment while absorbing energy and, thus, retain higher energy and temperatures in the atmosphere. GWP ratings for substances and material that contribute to the potential of global warming are developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations body responsible for assessing the science related to climate change.1 GWP uses the same scale to evaluate all substances and materials, making comparisons of direct emissions of refrigerants easy.