Climate footprint Climate footprint The term climate footprint has emerged from the field of carbon footprinting, and refers to a measure of the full set of greenhouse gases (GHGs) controlled under the Kyoto Protocol. A climate footprint is a more comprehensive measure of anthropogenic impact upon the climate than a carbon footprint, but is also more costly and labour-intensive to calculate. A climate footprint is a measure of the total amount of carbon dioxide (CO), methane (CH), nitrous oxide (NO), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulphur hexafluoride (SF) emissions of a defined population, system or activity, considering all relevant sources, sinks and
Nitrous oxide careful heating of ammonium nitrate at about 250 C, which decomposes into nitrous oxide and water vapour. The addition of various phosphate salts favours formation of a purer gas at slightly lower temperatures. This reaction may be difficult to control, resulting in detonation. The decomposition of ammonium nitrate is also a common laboratory method for preparing the gas. Equivalently, it can be obtained by heating a mixture of sodium nitrate and ammonium sulfate: Another method involves the reaction of urea, nitric acid, and sulfuric acid: Direct oxidation of ammonia with a manganese dioxide-bismuth oxide catalyst has been reported: cf. Ostwald