Sensitivity of Global Warming Potentials to the assumed background atmosphere
This is the first in a series of papers in which we will examine various aspects of the Global Warming Potential (GWP) concept and the sensitivity and uncertainties associated with the GWP values derived for the 1992 updated scientific assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). One of the authors of this report (DJW) helped formulate the GWP concept for the first IPCC report in 1990. The Global Warming Potential concept was developed for that report as an attempt to fulfill the request from policymakers for a way of relating the potential effects on climate from various greenhouse gases, in much the same way as the Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP) concept (Wuebbles, 1981) is used in policy analyses related to concerns about the relative effects of CFCs and other compounds on stratospheric ozone destruction. We are also coauthors of the section on radiative forcing and Global Warming Potentials for the 1992 IPCC update; however, there was too little time to prepare much in the way of new research material for that report. Nonetheless, we have recognized for some time that there are a number of uncertainties and limitations associated with the definition of GWPs used in both the original and new IPCC reports. In this paper, we examine one of those uncertainties, namely, the effect of the assumed background atmospheric concentrations on the derived GWPs. Later papers will examine the sensitivity of GWPs to other uncertainties and limitations in the current concept.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 10135092
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-ID-109847; ON: DE92011072
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 5 Mar 1992
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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