Ecuador's Sources of N2O Emissions
Key Insights
Agricultural Emissions Dominate
Ecuador's anthropogenic N2O emissions have been predominantly driven by agriculture. Since the mid-20th century, emissions from this sector have surged, reflecting the country's agricultural expansion. The 1960s marked a significant increase, with emissions continuing to rise into the 21st century. Despite fluctuations, agriculture remains the largest contributor to N2O emissions, accounting for a substantial portion of the total emissions. This trend underscores the critical role of agricultural practices in Ecuador's emission profile.
Energy and Industry: Gradual Growth
While agriculture leads, emissions from energy and industry have shown gradual growth. The discovery of oil in the Amazon in 1967 and the completion of the Trans-Ecuadorian Pipeline in 1972 catalyzed energy-related emissions. These developments facilitated increased fossil fuel consumption, contributing to a steady rise in emissions from the energy sector. Industrial emissions, though smaller in scale, have also seen incremental increases, reflecting Ecuador's industrialization efforts over the decades.
Impact of Natural Disasters
Natural disasters have occasionally disrupted emission trends. The 1987 earthquake, for instance, damaged oil infrastructure, temporarily increasing emissions due to reconstruction efforts. Similarly, the 1997-1998 El Niño phenomenon led to heightened emissions from agriculture and energy use during recovery. These events highlight the vulnerability of Ecuador's emission patterns to environmental disruptions, emphasizing the need for resilient infrastructure and 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.