Causes: Man-made industrial chemicals
Image: Nicholas Hippert
Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), is the most potent greenhouse gas in the world, with a global warming potential (GWP) 22,200 times more powerful that of CO2. It lasts in the atmosphere for around 2,000 years. And it’s increasing (Video 1 & Fig. 1).
CFCs, HCFCs, HFCs, PFCs and others (Fig. 2) are man-made chemicals with a global warming potential many thousands of times that of CO2 and the amount in the atmosphere is increasing (Fig. 3). Some of these chemicals contribute to the loss of the ozone layer. They have been linked to why the Arctic and Antarctic regions are warming faster than anywhere else on Earth.
Collectively, these account for 2.4% to Aotearoa’s emissions.
Fig. 1: Sulphur hexafluoride atmospheric concentrations 1994-2024. (Image: NOAA Global Monitoring Lab.)
SF6, CFCs, HCFCs, HFCs, PFCs, and others
Fig. 2: Chemical that contribute to warming the atmosphere (2020). Click on the image to be taken to the NOAA page to see the latest measurements. (Image: NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory)
Fig. 3: The heat that GHGs contribute to warming is measured in watts/ square metre. This graph shows that while the main contributors are carbon dioxide (red) and methane (orange), nitrous oxide (green) man-made industrial chemicals GHGs (grey, blue, pink) are increasing. Image: rCraig009 based on data from NOAA).
