Cabo Verde's Sources of N2O Emissions
Key Insights
Agricultural Emissions Dominate
Cabo Verde's N2O emissions have been predominantly driven by agriculture, especially since the mid-20th century. The decadal data reveals a steady increase in emissions from this sector, peaking in the 1990s. This trend aligns with the country's post-independence economic restructuring in 1975, which aimed to boost agricultural productivity. However, the 1990s saw a notable expansion in tourism, which may have contributed to a temporary rise in emissions due to increased energy consumption.
Energy Sector's Growing Influence
While agriculture remains the primary source of N2O emissions, the energy sector has shown a gradual increase in its contribution over the decades. The introduction of coal in the 1940s marked the beginning of this trend, but it was the early 2000s wind energy projects that significantly altered the energy landscape. These projects aimed to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, yet the overall emissions from energy continued to rise, reflecting the growing energy demands of a developing nation.
Impact of Waste Management Initiatives
In recent years, Cabo Verde has made strides in waste management, particularly with the implementation of programs in 2015 aimed at reducing landfill use. These efforts have positively impacted emissions, as evidenced by the decadal data showing a modest but consistent reduction in waste-related N2O emissions. This aligns with the country's broader environmental goals and highlights the potential for further emission reductions through sustainable practices.
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.