The updated version of Germany’s refrigeration and air conditioning directive, which entered into force on 1 January, will subsidise the installation of refrigeration systems based on ‘non-halogenated and low-GWP refrigerants’. Natural or nonhalogenated refrigerants like CO2, ammonia and hydrocarbons (such as propane, isobutane and propene/propylene) are naturally occurring and do not need to be chemically synthesized. The subsidy scheme seeks to reduce the energy consumption of refrigeration and air-conditioning systems and runs from 1 January 2017 until 1 January 2019.