Bahamas' Sources of N2O Emissions
Key Insights
Agricultural Emissions Rise and Fall
The Bahamas has seen a notable fluctuation in N2O emissions from agriculture over the decades. Starting from negligible levels in the early 20th century, emissions gradually increased, peaking in the early 2000s. This rise can be attributed to the expansion of agricultural activities, possibly linked to historical events like the introduction of sugarcane cultivation. However, recent years have shown a decline, with significant decreases in 2012 and 2019, possibly due to changes in agricultural practices or external factors like hurricanes impacting agricultural output.
Energy Sector's Steady Contribution
Emissions from the energy sector have shown a steady increase since the mid-20th century, reflecting the Bahamas' growing reliance on fossil fuels for energy. The expansion of the tourism industry post-World War II and subsequent infrastructure development likely contributed to this trend. Despite a slight dip around the year 2000, energy-related emissions have remained a consistent part of the country's N2O profile, underscoring the ongoing challenge of balancing energy needs with environmental impacts.
Impact of Natural Disasters
Natural disasters, particularly hurricanes, have played a significant role in shaping the Bahamas' emissions profile. Events like Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and Hurricane Dorian in 2019 led to temporary spikes in emissions due to reconstruction efforts. These disasters not only increased emissions from construction activities but also reduced the country's natural carbon sinks, highlighting the vulnerability of the Bahamas to climate-related events and their impact on emissions.
Background
The chart shows a national breakdown by source of the yearly nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from human activities and processes, expressed as weight in megatonnes (Mt). Human-induced emissions are the main driver of the increasing atmospheric nitrous oxide that is warming our planet. The sources of human nitrous oxide emissions are
- Agriculture
- Energy
- Industry
- Waste
- Other
Agriculture
Emissions related to agriculture are mainly from the use of synthetic fertilizers and manure management.
Synthetic fertilizer, used for agricultural processes, contains a lot of nitrogen. That nitrogen in the soil reacts and causes considerable N2O emissions. The use of excess fertilizer, meaning more fertilizer than the plants can use to grow, causes even higher relative emissions. Applying the right amount of fertilizer at the right time can reduce N2O emissions. There are many technical solutions to reduce emissions while keeping, or even increasing, agricultural yields.
When manure is left on the field or otherwise managed in dry processes, it emits considerable amounts of nitrous oxide. Manure can be managed by wet processes, which reduces nitrous oxide emissions but increases methane emissions. Some technical solutions focus on modifying the animal feed to reduce the nitrogen in the manure, thereby reducing nitrous oxide emissions.
Energy, Industry, Waste, and Other
All non-agricultural categories together have much lower emissions than agricultural emissions alone.
N2O emissions related to energy are almost all from the combustion of fossil fuels. For example, the combustion of fossil fuels in power plants, cars, and airplanes not only causes CO2 emissions but also emits nitrous oxide (N2O). Any advances to reducing fossil fuel dependency will thus also reduce nitrous oxide emissions.
Most industry-related emissions are from the chemical industry for producing fertilizer, nylon, and similar products. Technologies are available to reduce emissions in these processes.
Nitrous oxide emissions from waste come from, for example, wastewater treatment and landfills.
Wikipedia: Nitrous oxideIPCC: AR6, 5.16 Anthropogenic nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions
Units and Measures
N2O emissions are expressed in the total weight in megatonnes per year. 1 Megatonne is equal to 1 million tonnes.
Wikipedia: MegatonneWikipedia: Global warming potential
About the Data
The last available year in all the emission datasets is 2023. N2O emissions come from the PRIMAP-Hist dataset. It is a rich dataset that combines several published sources to create a historical emissions time series for various greenhouse gases.
The Key Insights paragraph was generated using a large language model (LLM) using a structured approach to improve the accuracy. This included separating the context generation from the interpretation and narrative.
Data Sources
PRIMAP-hist The PRIMAP-hist national historical emissions time series (1750-2023)
Update cycle: Every few monthsDelay: Less than 1 yearCredits: Gütschow, Johannes; Busch, Daniel; Pflüger, Mika (2024): The PRIMAP-hist national historical emissions time series (1750-2023) v2.6. Zenodo.