The Influence of Volatile Organic Compounds on Climate Change: A brief review

Abstract

In recent decades, the increase of anthropic activities has generated several environmental and socioeconomic impacts, causing chemical and physical changes in Earth's atmosphere. Among them, we can highlight the increase in greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions, intensified by the industrialization and urbanization processes after the industrial revolution. In addition to the most common GHGs, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by biogenic and anthropogenic sources also contribute to the absorption of infrared radiation and the increase in the global average surface temperature. VOCs play an important role in the atmosphere, such as the formation of photochemical smog, secondary aerosols and, consequently, climate change. Furthermore, the occurrence of different environmental impacts, such as cyclones, thermal inversion, melting glaciers, and rising sea levels, are associated with the uncontrolled emission of different VOCs in the atmosphere. Therefore, the main objective of this work was to evaluate the influence of VOCs on climate change, in addition to proposing some sustainable strategies to mitigate the release of these pollutants into the atmosphere, in order to control the increase in global warming and reduce the incidence of chemical and climatic phenomena, that become more frequent in the current scenario.