Fugitive Emissions
Fugitive emissions are unintentional or irregular releases of greenhouse gases from pressurised equipment, storage facilities, or industrial systems. The most common corporate source is the leakage of hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants from air conditioning and refrigeration systems.
What is Fugitive Emissions?
Fugitive emissions are greenhouse gases that escape unintentionally from equipment, systems, or processes — as opposed to emissions from deliberate combustion of fuels. Under the GHG Protocol, they are classified as Scope 1 direct emissions because they come from sources the organisation owns or controls.
The most significant source of fugitive emissions for most organisations is the leakage of refrigerant gases from air conditioning, refrigeration, and heat pump systems. Common refrigerants include R-410A (GWP 2,088), R-407C (GWP 1,774), R-404A (GWP 3,922), and R-134a (GWP 1,430). Because these gases have global warming potentials hundreds or thousands of times higher than CO₂, even small leaks in mass terms can result in a substantial CO₂e figure. A supermarket losing 50 kg of R-404A, for example, generates approximately 196 tCO₂e — equivalent to burning about 78,000 litres of diesel.
Other sources of fugitive emissions include: methane leaks from natural gas distribution systems and pipework; releases from industrial processes such as coal handling, chemical production, and wastewater treatment; and SF₆ leaks from high-voltage electrical switchgear (SF₆ has a GWP of 23,500). In the oil and gas sector, fugitive methane emissions from wells, pipelines, and processing facilities are a major concern.
Calculating fugitive emissions from refrigerants typically uses the "top-up" method: the quantity of refrigerant recharged into a system during maintenance is treated as the quantity that has leaked. This data is available from F-gas engineers' service records and refrigerant purchase invoices. The DEFRA emission factors provide GWP-weighted conversion factors for all common refrigerant types.
Under the F-Gas Regulation (retained in UK law post-Brexit), operators of equipment containing fluorinated greenhouse gases above certain thresholds must conduct regular leak checks, maintain records of quantities added and recovered, and use certified technicians. The regulation also includes a phase-down schedule for HFCs, driving the transition to lower-GWP alternatives.
Reducing fugitive emissions involves proactive leak detection and repair (LDAR) programmes, regular maintenance schedules, transitioning to lower-GWP refrigerants (e.g., R-32, CO₂, propane), and replacing ageing equipment with modern, sealed systems designed for minimal leakage.
Practical Examples
A hotel chain's F-gas engineer tops up 30 kg of R-410A across its portfolio during annual maintenance — this 30 kg of leaked refrigerant is reported as Scope 1 fugitive emissions at approximately 62.6 tCO₂e.
A cold storage facility leaks 100 kg of R-404A from its industrial refrigeration system over a year, generating 392.2 tCO₂e of fugitive emissions — exceeding the facility's entire combustion emissions from gas heating.
An electricity distribution company reports SF₆ fugitive emissions from high-voltage switchgear, where even a 5 kg release represents 117.5 tCO₂e due to the extremely high GWP of SF₆.
How Climatise Helps
Upload your refrigerant recharge records and Climatise automatically calculates fugitive emissions using the correct GWP for each refrigerant type. The platform flags high-GWP systems where transitioning to lower-impact alternatives would deliver the largest carbon savings.
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