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· GHG AND CARBON FOOTPRINT ACCOUNTING AND REPORTING Human activities continue to impact Earth's climate through the emission of greenhouse gases. The climate change is caused by a range of gases, known collectively as ‘greenhouse gases’. Six greenhouse gases (GHGs) contribute the most towards global warming and associated climatic change. They are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydro-fluorocarbons (HFCs), per-fluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6). As concentration of these gases increase in atmosphere so will be the global warming. Over the last few decades, temperatures have risen sharply at the global level — to approximately 0.80 C higher than our 19611990 baseline. The global temperature is rising at the rate of 0.170 C per decade. Of these greenhouse gases, most common is carbon dioxide released from combustion of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, natural gas etc. and that is why it is talked about the most. Figure 10.1 shows trend in CO2 levels in parts per million (ppm) over the last four decades.
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