What is the correct sequence of Global Warming Potential (GWP) of following…

Concept — Global Warming Potential (GWP) is a relative index. It states how much energy the emission of one tonne of a gas absorbs over a fixed time horizon — conventionally 100 years — expressed as a multiple of the energy absorbed by one tonne of carbon dioxide over the same period. Carbon dioxide is the reference gas, so its GWP is 1 by definition and every other greenhouse gas is scaled against it. Two molecular properties decide where a gas lands on that scale: how strongly it absorbs outgoing infrared radiation, and how long it survives in the atmosphere before being removed.

Application — the 100-year GWP values reported by the IPCC (AR5/AR6) for the four gases named in this item:

1. CO2 (carbon dioxide) — GWP = 1, by definition. Per molecule it is a comparatively weak absorber; it matters because of the sheer quantity emitted, and it is the benchmark against which the others are measured.

2. CH4 (methane) — GWP is about 27 to 30. It absorbs infrared far more strongly than carbon dioxide, but its atmospheric lifetime is short (about 12 years), which limits how much energy it traps across a 100-year window.

3. N2O (nitrous oxide) — GWP is about 265 to 273. It pairs strong infrared absorption with a long atmospheric lifetime of roughly 110 years, so its effect accumulates over the whole horizon.

4. CFC-11 (trichlorofluoromethane, CCl3F) — GWP is about 4,660 in AR5 and about 6,226 in AR6. Its C–Cl and C–F bonds absorb in the 8–13 µm atmospheric window, a band in which the atmosphere is otherwise nearly transparent, and the molecule persists for about 45 to 55 years.

Cross-check — the same figures side by side:

Contrast — halogenated compounds such as the chlorofluorocarbons sit three to four orders of magnitude above the naturally occurring greenhouse gases, because they absorb in the infrared window that CO2 and water vapour leave open. That gap is large enough that no plausible reading of the data puts CFC-11 anywhere but at the top. The ranking is also robust to the choice of time horizon: on the 20-year horizon methane rises to roughly 80 because its short lifetime is no longer being averaged away, yet it still stays below nitrous oxide (about 270) and CFC-11 (about 6,700 to 8,300).

Result — ordering the 100-year values from lowest to highest gives 1 < 27–30 < 265–273 < 4,660–6,226, that is carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, CFC-11. In the labels used in the stem this is the sequence B, A, D, C.