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🇨🇮 Côte d’Ivoire's Sources of CH₄ Emissions

Côte d’Ivoire's Sources of CH4 Emissions

✨ Key Insights

Colonial Cocoa Expansion and Emissions

The introduction of cocoa plantations by French colonialists in the early 1900s marked a significant shift in Côte d'Ivoire's land use. This expansion led to deforestation, which likely increased CO₂ emissions as forests, natural carbon sinks, were cleared. Although the exact impact on methane emissions isn't detailed, the land-use change set a precedent for future agricultural practices that would contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.

Oil and Gas Exploration in the 1970s

The discovery of oil and gas reserves in the 1970s significantly altered Côte d'Ivoire's energy landscape. The extraction and use of these fossil fuels contributed to increased methane emissions, particularly from fugitive emissions during oil extraction. This period saw a notable rise in methane emissions, aligning with the country's growing energy demands and industrial activities.

Agricultural Intensification and Methane Rise

The 1980s brought intensified agricultural practices, particularly in cocoa and coffee sectors, which likely contributed to increased methane emissions from livestock and waste. This intensification, coupled with the use of nitrogen-based fertilizers, also led to a rise in other greenhouse gases. The data reflects a steady increase in methane emissions from livestock during this period, highlighting the environmental impact of agricultural expansion.

Recent Trends and Sustainable Practices

In recent years, Côte d'Ivoire has made strides towards sustainable practices, particularly in cocoa production. Initiatives to reduce deforestation and improve land management are expected to mitigate CO₂ emissions. However, methane emissions from livestock and waste continue to rise, underscoring the ongoing challenge of balancing agricultural productivity with environmental sustainability.

Background

The chart shows a national breakdown by source of the yearly methane (CH4) emissions from human activities expressed as weight in megatonnes (Mt). In the scientific literature, these are referred to as anthropogenic emissions. Human-induced methane emissions increase atmospheric methane, which is warming the Earth. The sources of human methane emissions are

  • Livestock
  • Fugitive emissions from the fossil fuel industry
  • Crop production
  • Fossil fuel combustion
  • Waste management
  • Other processes

Methane's Global Warming Potential

Methane has a much higher Global Warming Potential (GWP) than CO2. However, the effect lasts only for a relatively brief period (9 years on average), compared to hundreds of years for CO2. A reduction in emissions can cause a rapid decline in its atmospheric levels and climate impact.

Livestock

Livestock emits methane that is produced in the animals' digestive system. Most methane is emitted from the mouth during rumination. A much smaller amount of methane is emitted from the manure. Depending on how the manure is managed, i.e., wet or dry, more methane is emitted. Wet management leads to higher methane emissions than dry management. However, dry management also emits nitrous oxide (N2O), which is another potent greenhouse gas.

Fugitive emissions from fossil fuel industry

Fugitive methane emissions are from the intentional and accidental release of methane, which happens during the extraction, storage, and transportation processes in the fossil fuel industry. Examples are methane leaks during oil and gas handling, storage, transport, incomplete combustion, and many more. Also, methane is deliberately ventilated from mines during the extraction of coal.


Methane is a primary part of “gas”, also called “natural gas” or “fossil gas”. Natural gas is used, for example, for heating and electricity generation, whereby it emits CO2 during the combustion process. However, when natural gas leaks (unburned) it contains a lot of fugitive methane emissions.

Waste

Waste from landfills and wastewater produces a lot of methane when biodegradable material breaks down without oxygen.

Crop production

Crop production emissions are largely from rice cultivation, which generates large amounts of methane during plant growth. These emissions are from flooded paddies, which create the swamp-like environment of rice fields. There are agricultural techniques to reduce emissions significantly, like periodic drainage and aeration. Rice is the main staple for about half the world's population, and its emissions are a significant part of total human methane emissions.

Fuel combustion

Fuel combustion emissions are mostly from the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels. As mentioned before, natural gas consists largely of methane, and when the combustion does not happen completely, methane enters the atmosphere.

Other

Other human-induced methane emissions include industrial processes and product uses.

Wikipedia: Anthropogenic Sources of Atmospheric Methane
IPCC: AR6, 5.2.2.2 Anthropogenic CH4 emissions

Units and Measures

CH4 emissions are expressed in the total weight in megatonnes per year. 1 Megatonne is equal to 1 million tonnes.

Wikipedia: Megatonne
Wikipedia: Global warming potential

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About the Data

The last available year in all the emission datasets is 2023. Methane 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.