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.

These two tables, derived from the 2021 and previous reports of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) (Refs. 1-4), give the lifetime in years and the radiative efficiency for the major compounds identified in the Kyoto Protocol as contributing to global climate change. Column definitions for the tables are as follows.

Column heading	Definition
Name	Compound chemical name or industrial designation of a greenhouse gas or normal air constituent
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. 1-4); only in Table 1
GWP [20-yr est.] (year)	Global Warming Potential for a 20-year horizon; as estimated by the IPCC in the year specified within parentheses (Refs. 1-4)
GWP [100-yr est.] (year)	Global Warming Potential for a 100-year horizon; as estimated by the IPCC in the year specified within parentheses (Refs. 1-4)
GWP [500-yr est.] (year)	Global Warming Potential for a 500-year horizon; as estimated by the IPCC in the year specified within parentheses (Refs. 1-4)

Table 1 summarizes the latest data from the 2021 IPCC report (see especially Ref. 3) for 68 important gases. Reference 3 also has similar data for many additional greenhouse gases. Table 2 provides a comparison of the 500-year estimates for 21 important greenhouse gases, most of which would have a significant impact on the global climate if their release is not controlled. Table 2 is included to show the consistency of the IPCC projections. The list of compounds includes those identified in the Montreal Protocol as contributing to ozone depletion, because 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.

The calculation of a GWP involves a number of assumptions, and other measures have been proposed. See the references for detailed discussions.

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>.
Smith, C., Z. R. J. Nicholls, K. Armour, W. Collins, P. Forster, M. Meinshausen, M. D. Palmer, M. Watanabe, 2021, The Earth’s Energy Budget, Climate Feedbacks, and Climate Sensitivity Supplementary Material, In: Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Masson-Delmotte, V., P. Zhai, A. Pirani, S. L. Connors, C. Péan, S. Berger, N. Caud, Y. Chen, L. Goldfarb, M. I. Gomis, M. Huang, K. Leitzell, E. Lonnoy, J.B.R. Matthews, T. K. Maycock, T. Waterfield, O. Yelekçi, R. Yu and B. Zhou (eds.), <https://ipcc.ch/static/ar6/wg1>.

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TABLE 1. Lifetime, Radiative Efficiency, and Global Warming Potential (GWP) of Greenhouse Gases (2021 Estimates)
(GWP Values Relative to Carbon Dioxide = 1)

Name	Mol. form.	Lifetime/years	Radiative efficiency/W m^-² ppb^-1	GWP [20-yr est.] (2021)	GWP [100-yr est.] (2021)	GWP [500-yr est.] (2021)
Continued on next page...
Natural Atmospheric Constituents
Carbon dioxide	CO₂		0.0000133	1	1	1
Methane	CH₄	11.8	0.000388	81.2	27.9	7.95
Nitrous oxide	N₂O	109	0.0032	273	273	130
Substances Controlled by the Montreal Protocol
CFC-11	CCl₃F	52	0.259	7430	5560	1870
CFC-12	CF₂Cl₂	102	0.32	11400	11200	5100
CFC-13	CF₃Cl	640	0.278	12400	16200	17500
CFC-113	CFCl₂CF₂Cl	93	0.301	6860	6520	2830
CFC-114	C₂Cl₂F₄	189	0.314	8260	9430	6150
CFC-115	CF₃CF₂Cl	540	0.246	7410	9600	9880
Halon-1301	CF₃Br	72	0.299	8320	7200	2750
Halon-1211	CF₂BrCl	16	0.3	4920	1930	552
Halon-2402	CF₂BrCF₂Br	28	0.312	4070	2170	639
Carbon tetrachloride	CCl₄	32	0.166	3810	2200	658
Methyl bromide	CH₃Br	0.8	0.004	8.74	2.43	0.692
Methyl chloroform	CH₃CCl₃	5	0.065	567	161	46
HCFC-22	CHClF₂	11.9	0.214	5690	1960	560
HCFC-123	CHCl₂CF₃	1.3	0.16	325	90.4	25.8
HCFC-124	CHClFCF₃	5.9	0.207	2070	597	170
HCFC-141b	CH₃CCl₂F	9.4	0.161	2170	860	246

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GLOBAL WARMING POTENTIAL OF GREENHOUSE GASES

References