page_title: Natural gas
section_title: Effect of natural gas release
hierarchical_section_title: Natural gas / Environmental effects / Effect of natural gas release
caption_attribution_description: English: Warming influence of greenhouse gases is increasing The warming influence of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has increased substantially over the last several decades. In 2019, the Annual Greenhouse Gas Index (AGGI) was 1.45, which represents an increase of 45% since 1990. Carbon dioxide remains the largest contributor to the increase. Radiative forcing (shown on the left vertical axis) is the change in the amount of solar radiation, or energy from the sun, that is trapped by the atmosphere and remains near Earth. When radiative forcing is greater than zero, it has a warming effect; when it is less than zero, it has a cooling effect. In this indicator, radiative forcing from long-lived greenhouse gases is shown relative to the year 1750. AGGI (shown on the right vertical axis) is an index of radiative forcing normalized to the year 1990 (represented by a red dot); it shows that the warming influence of long-lived greenhouse gases in the atmosphere increased by 45% between 1990 and 2019. About Annual Greenhouse Gas Index: This index follows the change in radiative forcing resulting from changing concentrations of twenty long-lived greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide (CO₂) methane (CH₄) nitrous oxide (N₂O) chlorofluorocarbons (CFC-11 and CFC-12) a set of 15 minor, long-lived halogenated gases Radiative forcing of each gas was calculated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) based on the measured concentrations of each gas in the atmosphere, compared with the concentrations that were present around 1750, before the Industrial Revolution began. Because each gas has a different ability to absorb and emit energy, this indicator converts the changes in greenhouse gas concentrations into a measure of the total radiative forcing (warming effect) caused by each gas. Radiative forcing is calculated in watts per square meter, which represents the size of the energy imbalance in the atmosphere. SOURCE: https://www.globalchange.gov/browse/indicators/indicator-annual-greenhouse-gas-index
context_page_description: Natural gas, is a naturally occurring hydrocarbon gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, but commonly including varying amounts of other higher alkanes, and sometimes a small percentage of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide, or helium. It is formed when layers of decomposing plant and animal matter are exposed to intense heat and pressure under the surface of the Earth over millions of years. The energy that the plants originally obtained from the sun is stored in the form of chemical bonds in the gas.
  Natural gas is a non-renewable hydrocarbon used as a source of energy for heating, cooking, and electricity generation. It is also used as a fuel for vehicles and as a chemical feedstock in the manufacture of plastics and other commercially important organic chemicals.
  Although not as damaging as coal natural gas is a major cause of climate change; it is a greenhouse gas itself, and creates carbon dioxide during oxidation. Natural gas can be used in place of coal, for example, to generate electricity, which may lower net carbon dioxide emissions in absence of carbon capture.
context_section_description: Human activity is responsible for about 60% of all methane emissions and for most of the resulting increase in atmospheric methane.  Natural gas is intentionally released or is otherwise known to leak during the extraction, storage, transportation, and distribution of fossil fuels.  Globally, this accounts for an estimated 33% of anthropogenic emissions in year 2020.  The decomposition of municipal solid waste (a source of landfill gas) and wastewater account for an additional 18% of such emissions.   These estimates include substantial uncertainties  which should be reduced in the near future with improved satellite measurements, such as those planned for MethaneSAT.
  After release to the atmosphere, methane is removed by gradual oxidation to carbon dioxide and water by hydroxyl radicals (OH⁻
  ) formed in the troposphere or stratosphere, giving the overall chemical reaction CH
  ₄ + 2O
  ₂ → CO
  ₂ + 2H
  ₂O. While the lifetime of atmospheric methane is relatively short when compared to carbon dioxide, with a half-life of about 7 years, it is more efficient at trapping heat in the atmosphere, so that a given quantity of methane has 84 times the global-warming potential of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period and 28 times over a 100-year period. Natural gas is thus a potent greenhouse gas due to the strong radiative forcing of methane in the short term, and the continuing effects of carbon dioxide in the longer term.
  Targeted efforts to reduce warming quickly by reducing anthropogenic methane emissions is a climate change mitigation strategy supported by the Global Methane Initiative.
caption: The warming influence of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has risen rapidly over the last few decades. The increasing atmospheric presence of carbon dioxide and methane are the largest drivers of the change in radiative forcing.
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