NOAA Paleoclimatology What are climate Forcings?
Updating Forcings and changes ΔF therein.
Internal Forcings transfer heat between different parts of Earth's climate system.
Scientists separate these natural influences on the climate into two groups:
internal and external Forcings.
Forcings are factors outside the climate system that force
or drive changes to the climate system.
The AGGI is
directy proportional to the direct warming influence("climate Forcings") of the GHGs in the index.
The second interpretation of CO2-eq, where positive and negative Forcings are summed, is becoming far more common.
The index quantifies the global climate Forcings of CO2, CH4(methane),
N2O(nitrous oxide), CFC12, CFC11 and 15 minor GHGs.
In 2014, the five main GHGs accounted for about 96% of climate Forcings by long-lived GHGs since 1750,
the pre-industrial baseline used by the IPCC.
Positive Forcings such as excess greenhouse gases warm the earth while negative Forcings,
such as the effects of most aerosols and volcanic eruptions, actually cool the earth.
Figure One, from the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) report,
shows the major climate Forcings and their magnitude,
and also the respective uncertainty ranges and level of scientific understanding.
Not all agree, saying we should drop the use of CO2 in isolation, or develop a tacit understanding that the use of carbon or
CO2 always refers to the broad mix of climate Forcings.