UN: More greenhouse gases to worry about

Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, meet some new greenhouse gases to make the climate change “Most Wanted” list.

Agence France-Presse reports that UN delegates meeting in Bonn this week want to include more than a dozen man-made gases in the next global climate treaty, which negotiators plan to begin discussing in Copenhagen this December.

While none of the industrial gases are being produced in enough quantity yet to have a significant impact on climate change, including them in the next climate treaty sends a message to industry, said Steve Sawyer, executive director of the Global Wind Energy Council: “Stop inventing gases with a high global warming potential.”

Among the gases officials want to include in the successor to the Kyoto Protocol are:

• Nitrogen trifluoride, used for making flat-screen TVs and 17,000 times a more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide;
• New types of perfluorocarbons;
• New types of hydrofluorocarbons;
• Trifluoromethyl sulphur pentafluoride;
• Fluorinated ethers;
• Perfluoropolyethers;
• Hydrocarbons;
• Dimethylether;
• Methyl chloroform;
• Methylene chloride;
• Methyl chloride;
• Dibromomethane;
• Bromodifluoromethane;
• Trifluoroiodomethane.