More New Heat Than CO2
The "Right Now" Pollutant
Since methane is over a hundred times as potent as CO2 while it’s in the atmosphere, but has historically been statistically watered down by using long-term Global Warming Potentials such as GWP100, many of us are surprised to learn that methane is playing in the same league with CO2, when it comes to recent, additional heating.
When comparing the new anthropogenic emissions since the Paris Agreement, signed in 2015, the heating contribution of new methane, emitted since then, is more than the heating contribution of new carbon dioxide. See the table below, which presents a calculation that has been prepared by Sam Abernethy and LINGO and reviewed by leading methane scientists.