C么te d鈥橧voire's Sources of N2O Emissions
Key Insights
Agriculture Drives Long-Term Rise
C么te d'Ivoire's N2O emissions are dominated by agriculture, accounting for roughly four-fifths of the total over time. After relatively low and steady levels through the early 20th century, emissions from agriculture began climbing from the late 1920s and accelerated from the late 1960s, moving from well below 1 megatonne to around 3 megatonnes today. The overall pattern is a persistent, steady increase.
Other Rises Then Plateaus
Emissions attributed to other sources were minimal for more than a century, rose quickly through the late 1970s and 1980s, and have since stabilized. Since around 1990 they have hovered around 0.35 megatonnes, varying within a fairly narrow band.
Energy鈥檚 Gradual Upturn
Energy-related N2O remained modest through the post-war era, then began a gradual upturn from the early 1990s, reaching just over 0.3 megatonnes recently. Waste has also edged up since the late 2000s to just over 0.3 megatonnes, while industry stays negligible.
Outlook And Priorities
The current trajectory shows agriculture still rising and setting the pace, with energy also trending upward, while other has leveled off. Bending the curve will require reversing growth in agriculture and slowing the climb in energy, while maintaining the stability achieved in other sources.
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: G眉tschow, Johannes; Busch, Daniel; Pfl眉ger, Mika (2024): The PRIMAP-hist national historical emissions time series (1750-2023) v2.6. Zenodo.