Tag: Global Warming Potential

 

GWP is the acronym widely used to refer to “Global Warming Potential“.

The Global Warming Potential of a greenhouse gas indicates to what extent functionally, in regards to their green house gas effect on a 100 year time line, it is functionally equivalent to a certain amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

In colloquial terms, it describes the heat trapping ability of a greenhouse gas in the atmospheric cover of a planet. And it does that in relation to the heat trapping ability of CO₂ by assigning a factor. The global warming potential, for example, of CO₂ is 1 and the global warming potential of methane is 21. So methane has a 21 times higher heat trapping ability than CO₂ on a 100 year time line/ time horizon.

For the purpose of GHG accounting, the global warming potential of a certain greenhouse gas provides the conversion factor to convert a specific amount of greenhouse gas emissions into CO₂e (CO₂ equivalent) emissions.

Global warming potentials for greenhouse gases

(Source: Environment Canada)