NOAA science expertise and data has supported the U.S. government decision to reduce potent greenhouse gas emissions. On September 21st, the United States Senate successfully approved the Kigali Amendment of the Montreal Protocol with strong bipartisan support. The Kigali Amendment, negotiated under the Obama administration in 2016, is an international agreement to phase-out and replace hydrofluorocarbons, a class of chemicals that act as potent greenhouse gasses.
The annual analysis of samples collected by NOAA’s Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network provides an updated measure of the excess heat trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouse gas pollution.
NOAA’s Annual Greenhouse Gas Index tracks the concentrations of greenhouse gases being added to the atmosphere principally from human-caused emissions. The AGGI then calculates the heat being added to Earth's atmosphere and oceans as a result.
A NOAA study published in the journal Nature demonstrates a profound effect of the Montreal Protocol: as levels of ozone-depleting chemicals controlled by the intenational treaty declined, a poleward shift of summertime circulation patterns in the Southern Hemisphere halted.
Emissions of one of the chemicals most responsible for the Antarctic ozone hole are on the rise, despite an international treaty that required an end to its production in 2010, a new NOAA study shows.