The Issue of Global Warming
Energetic Transition. Challenges and Outlooks

The issue of global warming has become a crucial challenge for all of humanity. This issue is monitored in its various aspects by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which publishes periodic reports analyzing the situation and the measures to be taken.

Carbon dioxide emitted by fossil fuels acts as a greenhouse gas, causing the Earth’s surface to warm. It is the gas that contributes most to the greenhouse effect (accounting for 76%, of which 65% came from fossil fuels and 11% from deforestation or the decomposition of biomass, in 2010).

Other greenhouse gases include methane, nitrous oxide (N₂O), as well as some industrial gases, perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF₆). According to the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report, over a 100-year time horizon, relative to CO₂ (GHG = 1), the global warming potential (GWP) of methane...