Relevant international protocols and HCFCs accelerated phase-out proposal have become effective,which brought great challenges to the whole refrigeration and air conditioning industry.Danfoss,as a trendsetter in climate and energy,committed itself to taking a leading role in the research and development of environmentally friendly products and system solutions based on lower GWP alternative refrigerants.At the beginning,the paper introduces several regulations currently introduced in some of the major countries,later it gives an update on refrigerants applications,and also provides an overview on the possible technology routes for current refrigerants and alternatives.The paper brings to attention the analysis on the feasibility of low-GWP refi-igerant R32 and the natural refrigerant R290 technology from environmental characteristics,performance,safety and availability.At the end,the paper summarizes the refrigerant trends in the air-conditioning and refrigeration industry for the future.