Last edited 02 May 2025

Long-lived greenhouse gases

Climate Change 2021 – The Physical Science Basis, Annex VII: Glossary, written by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and published by Cambridge University Press in 2023, defines long-lived greenhouse gases (LLGHGs) as: ‘A set of well-mixed greenhouse gases with long atmospheric lifetimes. This set of compounds includes carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O), together with some halogenated compounds. They have a warming effect on climate. These compounds accumulate in the atmosphere at decadal to centennial time scales, and their effect on climate hence persists for decades to centuries after their emission. On time scales of decades to a century, already emitted emissions of long-lived climate forcers can only be abated by greenhouse gas removal.’

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