Section: 14 | Global Warming Potential of Greenhouse Gases |

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GLOBAL WARMING POTENTIAL OF GREENHOUSE GASES

The Global Warming Potential (GWP) of a gas is a measure of the degree, relative to carbon dioxide, to which the presence of that gas in the atmosphere will contribute to a long-term increase in global temperature. The calculation of the GWP for a given gas takes into account the efficiency of the gas in absorbing solar radiation (primarily determined by the infrared spectrum of the compound) and the time the compound will remain in the atmosphere before it is removed by natural processes. Thus, if a pulse of 1 kg of the gas is emitted to the atmosphere at the same time as a pulse of 1 kg of CO₂, the GWP compares the warming effect of the gas relative to CO₂ over various time horizons.

This table, which is taken from the 2014 and 2007 reports of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) (Refs. 1 and 2), gives the lifetime in years and the radiative efficiency for the major compounds identified in the Kyoto Protocol as contributing to global climate change. The data columns are defined as follows.

Column heading	Definition
Name	Compound chemical name
Synonym/Code	Common synynom or industrial designation
Mol. form.	Molecular formula
Lifetime	Lifetime of the compound, in years
Radiative efficiency	A measure of the radiative forcing that influences the energy balance in the Earth–atmosphere system; in units of watts per square meter for a concentration of one part per billion (W m^-2 ppb^-1) (see Refs. 1 and 2)
GWP 100-yr est. (2014)	Global Warming Potential for a 100-year horizon; as estimated by the IPCC in 2014 (Ref. 2)
GWP 100-yr est. (2007)	Global Warming Potential for a 100-year horizon; as estimated by the IPCC in 2007 (Ref. 1)
GWP 100-yr est. (1995)	Global Warming Potential for a 100-year horizon; as estimated by the IPCC in 1995
GWP 20-yr est. (2007)	Global Warming Potential for a 20-year horizon; as estimated by the IPCC in 2007 (Ref. 1)
GWP 500-yr est. (2007)	Global Warming Potential for a 500-year horizon; as estimated by the IPCC in 2007 (Ref. 1)

The calculation of a GWP involves a number of assumptions, and other measures have been proposed (see Refs 1 and 2).

The list of compounds includes those identified in the Montreal Protocol as contributing to ozone depletion, since these compounds also contribute to global warming. It also includes compounds used or proposed as replacements for the ozone-depleting compounds that still have global warming potential.

References

Forster, P., V. Ramaswamy, P. Artaxo, T. Berntsen, R. Betts, D. W. Fahey, J. Haywood, J. Lean, D.C. Lowe, G. Myhre, J. Nganga, R. Prinn, G. Raga, M. Schulz, and R. Van Dorland, 2007: Changes in Atmospheric Constituents and in Radiative Forcing. In: Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Solomon, S., D. Sin, M. Manning, Z. Chen, M. Marquis, K. B. Averyt, M. Tignor and H.L. Miller (eds.)], Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom, and New York, NY, <http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/wg1-report.html>.
Myhre, G., D. Shindell, F.-M. Bréon, W. Collins, J. Fuglestvedt, J. Huang, D. Koch, J.-F. Lamarque, D. Lee, B. Mendoza, T. Nakajima, A. Robock, G. Stephens, T. Takemura and H. Zhang, 2013: Anthropogenic and Natural Radiative Forcing. In: Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Stocker, T.F., D. Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S.K. Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y. Xia, V. Bex and P.M. Midgley (eds.)], Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom, and New York, NY, <https://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/wg1/WG1AR5_Chapter08_FINAL.pdf>.

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Lifetime, Radiative Efficiency, and Global Warming Potential (GWP) of Greenhouse Gases

Name	Synonym/Code	Mol. form.	Lifetime (years)	Radiative efficiency/ W m^-² ppb^-1	GWP 100-yr est. (2014)	GWP 100-yr est. (2007)	GWP 100-yr est. (1995)	GWP 20-yr est. (2007)	GWP 500-yr est. (2007)
Continued on next page...
*Natural atmospheric constituents*
Carbon dioxide		CO₂		0.000014	1	1	1	1	1
Methane		CH₄	12	0.00037	28	25	21	72	7.6
Nitrous oxide		N₂O	114	0.00303		298	310	289	153
*Substances controlled by the Montreal Protocol*
Trichlorofluoromethane	CFC-11	CCl₃F	45	0.25	4600	4750	3800	6730	1620
Dichlorodifluoromethane	CFC-12	CF₂Cl₂	100	0.32	10200	10900	8100	11000	5200
Chlorotrifluoromethane	CFC-13	CF₃Cl	640	0.25	13900	14400		10800	16400
1,1,2-Trichloro-1,2,2-trifluoroethane	CFC-113	CFCl₂CF₂Cl	85	0.3	5820	6130	4800	6540	2700
1,2-Dichloro-1,1,2,2-tetrafluoroethane	CFC-114	C₂Cl₂F₄	300	0.31	8590	10000		8040	8730
Chloropentafluoroethane	CFC-115	CF₃CF₂Cl	1700	0.18	7670	7370		5310	9990
Bromotrifluoromethane	Halon-1301	CF₃Br	65	0.32	6290	7140	5400	8480	2760
Bromochlorodifluoromethane	Halon-1211	CF₂BrCl	16	0.3	1750	1890		4750	575
1,2-Dibromotetrafluoroethane	Halon-2402	CF₂BrCF₂Br	20	0.33	1470	1640		3680	503
Tetrachloromethane	Carbon tetrachloride	CCl₄	26	0.13	1730	1400	1400	2700	435
Bromomethane	Methyl bromide	CH₃Br	0.7	0.01	2	5		17	1
1,1,1-Trichloroethane	Methyl chloroform	CH₃CCl₃	5	0.06	160	146		506	45
Chlorodifluoromethane	HCFC-22	CHClF₂	12	0.2	1760	1810	1500	5160	549
2,2-Dichloro-1,1,1-trifluoroethane	HCFC-123	CHCl₂CF₃	1.3	0.14	79	77	90	273	24
1-Chloro-1,2,2,2-tetrafluoroethane	HCFC-124	CHClFCF₃	5.8	0.22	527	609	470	2070	185
1,1-Dichloro-1-fluoroethane	HCFC-141b	CH₃CCl₂F	9.3	0.14	782	725		2250	220

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GLOBAL WARMING POTENTIAL OF GREENHOUSE GASES

References

Lifetime, Radiative Efficiency, and Global Warming Potential (GWP) of Greenhouse Gases

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