Greenhouse Gas Factsheets

Greenhouse Gas Factsheets

As part of the most comprehensive synthesis data product of atmospheric GHG measurements, we here present fact sheets for 43 greenhouse gases. Please see Meinshausen et al., Geoscientific Model Development, 2017 and its supplements for more details.

The lifetimes and radiative efficiencies are taken from IPCC WG1 Fifth Assessment Report, Appendix 8.A. We thank Urs Beyerle at IAC, ETH Zurich, for hosting the different fileformats.

The provided data formats (in the last column) are:

  • nc - netcdf files
  • mat - MATLAB .mat data files
  • csv - comma separate ASCII files
  • xlsx - Excel files

Name Chemical Formula Lifetime Radiative Efficiency GHG Factsheets Data
The three main GHGs
Name Chemical Formula Lifetime Radiative Efficiency GHG Factsheets Data
Carbon dioxide CO2 no finite lifetime 1.37E-5 PDF icon Download (2.24 MB)
Methane CH4 12.4 3.63E-4 PDF icon Download (2.1 MB)
Nitrous Oxide N2O 121 3.00E-3 PDF icon Download (1.56 MB)
Hydrofluorocarbons
Name Chemical Formula Lifetime Radiative Efficiency GHG Factsheets Data
Carbon tetrachloride CCl4 26.0 0.17 PDF icon Download (1.6 MB)
Chloroform CHCl3 0.4 0.08 PDF icon Download (1.8 MB)
HFC-125 CHF2CF3 28.2 0.23 PDF icon Download (1.49 MB)
HFC-134a CH2FCF3 13.4 0.16 PDF icon Download (1.83 MB)
HFC-143a CH3CF3 47.1 0.16 PDF icon Download (1.46 MB)
HFC-152a CH3CHF2 1.5 0.10 PDF icon Download (1.83 MB)
HFC-227ea CF3CHFCF3 38.9 0.26 PDF icon Download (1.41 MB)
HFC-23 CHF3 222.0 0.18 PDF icon Download (1.3 MB)
HFC-236fa CF3CH2CF3 242.0 0.24 PDF icon Download (1.3 MB)
HFC-245fa CHF2CH2CF3 7.7 0.24 PDF icon Download (1.28 MB)
HFC-32 CH2F2 5.2 0.11 PDF icon Download (1.4 MB)
HFC-365mfc CH3CF2CH2CF3 8.7 0.22 PDF icon Download (1.42 MB)
HFC-43-10mee CF3CHFCHFCF2CF3 16.1 0.42 PDF icon Download (1.24 MB)
Methyl chloride CH3Cl 1.0 0.01 PDF icon Download (2.34 MB)
Methyl chloroform CH3CCl3 5.0 0.07 PDF icon Download (1.79 MB)
Methylene chloride CH2Cl2 0.4 0.03 PDF icon Download (2.05 MB)
Chlorofluorocarbons
Name Chemical Formula Lifetime Radiative Efficiency GHG Factsheets Data
CFC-11 CCl3F 45.0 0.26 PDF icon Download (1.64 MB)
CFC-113 CCl2FCClF2 85.0 0.30 PDF icon Download (1.72 MB)
CFC-114 CClF2CClF2 190.0 0.31 PDF icon Download (1.32 MB)
CFC-115 CClF2CF3 1,020.0 0.20 PDF icon Download (1.31 MB)
CFC-12 CCl2F2 100.0 0.32 PDF icon Download (1.66 MB)
Bromocarbons, Hydrobromocarbons and Halons
Name Chemical Formula Lifetime Radiative Efficiency GHG Factsheets Data
Halon-1211 CBrClF2 16.0 0.29 PDF icon Download (1.88 MB)
Halon-1301 CBrF3 65.0 0.30 PDF icon Download (1.58 MB)
Halon-2402 CBrF2CBrF2 20.0 0.31 PDF icon Download (1.58 MB)
Methyl bromide CH3Br 0.8 0.004 PDF icon Download (2.18 MB)
Hydrochlorofluorocarbons
Name Chemical Formula Lifetime Radiative Efficiency GHG Factsheets Data
HCFC-141b CH3CCl2F 9.2 0.16 PDF icon Download (1.73 MB)
HCFC-142b CH3CClF2 17.2 0.19 PDF icon Download (1.78 MB)
HCFC-22 CHClF2 11.9 0.21 PDF icon Download (1.8 MB)
Fully Fluorinated Species
Name Chemical Formula Lifetime Radiative Efficiency GHG Factsheets Data
Nitrogen trifluoride NF3 500.0 0.20 PDF icon Download (1.17 MB)
PFC-116 C2F6 10,000.0 0.25 PDF icon Download (1.44 MB)
PFC-14 CF4 50,000.0 0.09 PDF icon Download (1.41 MB)
PFC-218 C3F8 2,600.0 0.28 PDF icon Download (1.38 MB)
PFC-31-10 C4F10 2,600.0 0.36 PDF icon Download (1.21 MB)
PFC-318 c-C4F8 3,200.0 0.32 PDF icon Download (1.19 MB)
PFC-41-12 n-C5F12 4,100.0 0.41 PDF icon Download (1.2 MB)
PFC-51-14 n-C6F14 3,100.0 0.44 PDF icon Download (1.22 MB)
PFC-61-16 n-C7F16 3,000.0 0.50 PDF icon Download (1.19 MB)
PFC-71-18 C8F18 3,000.0 0.55 PDF icon Download (1.21 MB)
Sulphur hexafluoride SF6 3,200.0 0.57 PDF icon Download (1.54 MB)
Sulphuryl fluoride SO2F2 36.0 0.20 PDF icon Download (1.33 MB)

Web tools and Projects we developed

  • Open-NEM

    The live tracker of the Australian electricity market.

  • Paris Equity Check

    This website is based on a Nature Climate Change study that compares Nationally Determined Contributions with equitable national emissions trajectories in line with the five categories of equity outlined by the IPCC.

  • liveMAGICC Climate Model

    Run one of the most popular reduced-complexity climate carbon cycle models online. Used by IPCC, UNEP GAP reports and numerous scientific publications.

  • NDC & INDC Factsheets

    Check out our analysis of all the post-2020 targets that countries announced under the Paris Agreement.