Editing Radiative forcing (section)

=== Climate change attribution ===
{{main|Causes of climate change}}

Radiative forcing is used to quantify the strengths of different natural and man-made drivers of Earth's energy imbalance over time. The detailed physical mechanisms by which these drivers cause the planet to warm or cool are varied. Radiative forcing allows the contribution of any one driver to be compared against others.

Another metric called ''effective radiative forcing'' or ERF removes the effect of rapid adjustments (so-called "fast feedbacks") within the atmosphere that are unrelated to longer term surface temperature responses. ERF means that climate change drivers can be placed onto a more level playing field to enable comparison of their effects and a more consistent view of how [[global surface temperature]] responds to various types of human forcing.<ref name="Nauels-2019" />