What is Global Warming Potential?

QuestionsCategory: Global WarmingWhat is Global Warming Potential?
Omkar Khanna asked 4 years ago
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What is Global Warming Potential?
Article Name
What is Global Warming Potential?
Description
Global warming potential helps understand and evaluate the impact of greenhouse gases towards global warming and climate change.
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GreenSutra
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1 Answers
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Team GreenSutra® Staff answered 4 years ago

All the greenhouse gases differ from each other in three key aspects:

  • Radiative Efficiency (Ability to absorb energy)
  • At what wavelength does the gas absorb radiation
  • Lifetime (Duration of stay in atmosphere)

In order to allow for comparisons among these greenhouse gases a standard was developed. This standard is also referred to as the Global Warming Potential.

IPCC 1996 defines the global warming potential as the cumulative radiative forcing – both direct and indirect effects -integrated over a period of time from the emission of a unit mass of gas relative to some reference gas.

Carbon dioxide (CO2was chosen by IPCC as this reference greenhouse gas since it is a naturally occurring gas and plays an important role in the carbon cycle. The GWP of Carbon Dioxide is considered to be 1.

Global Warming Potential specifically refers to a measure of how much energy the emission of 1 ton of gas will absorb over a given period of time, relative to the emissions of 1 ton of carbon dioxide (CO2).