Greenhouse gases

By:

James Knight

James is a lead editor for Invezz, where he covers topics from across the financial world, from the stock… read more.

Updated: Aug 20, 2021

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Gases in Earth’s atmosphere (carbon dioxide (C02)» methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (NO), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), sulphur hexafluoride (SFe), and water vapour (H2O)) that absorb part of the solar radiation reflected from the Earth’s surface and trap the heat in the atmosphere; this is referred to as the greenhouse effect. An increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases is likely to result in rising average temperature of the Earth, or global warming. Given uncertainty in how the climate system varies naturally and reacts to emissions of greenhouse gases, it is difficult to determine how much of any observed changes can be attributed to human activity.

Reference: Oxford Press Dictonary of Economics, 5th edt.