China’s Hydrofluorocarbon Emissions for 2011–2017Inferred from Atmospheric Measurements

Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) have been widely used in China to replace ozone-depleting substances (ODSs) that are required to be phased out under the Montreal Protocol regime. There are limited studies, which report HFC emissions in China, especially for recent years and using top-down approaches based on atmospheric measurements. Here we used flask and in situ measurements for nine HFCs from seven sites across China over the period 2011−2017, and FLEXPART-model-based Bayesian inverse modeling, to estimate HFC emission magnitudes and changes in China. We found that emissions of HFC-32 (CH2F2), HFC-125 (CHF2CF3), HFC-134a (CH2FCF3), HFC-227ea (CF3CHFCF3), and HFC-245fa (CHF2CH2CF3) have been increasing fast over this period, while emissions of HFC-143a (CH3CF3), HFC-152a (CH3CHF2), HFC-236fa (CF3CH2CF3), and HFC-365mfc (CH3CF2CH2CF3) were relatively stable. Total CO2-equivalent emissions of the nine HFCs increased from ~60 Tg yr-1 in 2011 to ~100 Tg yr-1 in 2017. Among these nine HFCs, HFC-134a (39%) and HFC-...