It is generally acknowledged that reduction of emission of man-made materials into the environment is the most important countermeasure to reduce the impact of human activities on climate and the environment. One important step is quantitative evaluation of impacts of each material using appropriate indexes. Being motivated by this concept, some indexes have been designed to assess the impact of materials on climate and the environment. Global Warming Potential(GWP)and Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP) have been used as means of quantifying the potential of integrated climate forcing of greenhouse gases and that of ozone depletion in the stratosphere, respectively (Fig. 4). Our group has evaluated these values for newly developed chemicals such as replacement compounds for CFCs; also, we have tried to develop more reliable indexes.

Figure 4: Schematic of Global Warming Potential and Ozone Depletion Potential.