evidence: Not Just CO2: China’s Efforts on Lesser Known Greenhouse Gases Critical to Stabilizing the Climate [...] But carbon dioxide (CO2) isn't the only greenhouse gas (GHG) to worry about. Other gases like methane, nitrous oxide and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) can have a much more powerful effect in heating our atmosphere. For example, methane emissions from natural gas leaks, agriculture and landfills warm the planet with an intensity 28 times that of the same amount of carbon dioxide over a 100-year time horizon. [...] As of 2014—the year when the latest government data is available—China emitted 2 gigatons of non-CO2 greenhouse gases, which accounted for 16% of the country's GHG emissions. To put that in perspective, China's non-CO2 emissions alone have a warming impact greater than all greenhouse gas emissions from Japan or Brazil. If China's non-CO2 emissions were a country, they would be the 7th largest emitter of total GHGs in the world.