Bahrain's Sources of N2O Emissions
Key Insights
Long-Term Rise Since The 1960s
Through the early and mid-20th century, Bahrain's nitrous oxide emissions stayed close to zero. From the late 1960s onward, totals increased, with "other" becoming the largest slice-about a third of national N2O-followed by industry and energy. Agriculture contributes a smaller share, and waste is the smallest of the main sources. Overall, emissions have built up from tiny levels to a few tenths of a megatonne per year today.
Distinct Sector Trajectories
Industry has climbed steadily from negligible levels mid-century, rising through the 1960s-2000 and again since 2000 to the highest levels in the early 2020s-on the order of eight hundredths of a megatonne. Energy grew from the mid-1960s to the mid-2010s before easing slightly, suggesting a recent leveling. Agriculture rose gradually through the 1970s to around 2010, then edged down through the 2010s. Waste increased slowly and has been fairly stable since 2000 at just under one hundredth of a megatonne. "Other" shifted from minimal levels into a steady rise since the late 1960s and is now near its peak.
Current Direction And Focus
Today, the dominant sources-other, industry, energy, agriculture, and waste-jointly shape Bahrain's N2O profile. Industry and other are still trending upward, energy appears to be stabilizing with a slight decline, and agriculture is gradually falling; waste is steady and small. Priorities are to bend the rise in industry and other, consolidate the recent slowdown in energy, and sustain declines in agriculture to prevent total emissions from drifting higher.
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 created using a large language model (LLM) in combination with our data, historic events, and a structured approach for best accuracy by 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.