Comoros' Sources of N2O Emissions
Key Insights
Agricultural Emissions Dominate
Throughout the decades, Comoros has seen a consistent rise in nitrous oxide emissions, primarily driven by agricultural activities. The introduction of plantation agriculture during the French colonization in 1886 marked the beginning of significant land use changes, which likely contributed to increased emissions. Agriculture has remained the dominant source of N2O emissions, accounting for the majority of the country's total emissions over the years. Despite fluctuations, the overall trend shows a gradual increase in emissions from this sector.
Energy Sector's Growing Contribution
While agriculture remains the primary source, the energy sector has shown a notable increase in its contribution to N2O emissions, particularly from the 1990s onwards. This rise coincides with the country's efforts to develop its energy infrastructure, although the introduction of renewable energy projects in 2010 aimed to mitigate fossil fuel reliance. Despite these efforts, the energy sector's share of emissions has continued to grow, reflecting the challenges in transitioning to cleaner energy sources.
Impact of Political and Environmental Events
Political events, such as the Anjouan secession crisis in 1997 and the establishment of the Union of the Comoros in 2001, have influenced land use and agricultural practices, potentially affecting emissions. Additionally, environmental events like Cyclone Kenneth in 2019 caused disruptions that may have temporarily increased emissions. These events highlight the complex interplay between political stability, environmental challenges, and emission trends in Comoros.
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.