El Salvador's Sources of N2O Emissions
Key Insights
Agricultural Influence on N₂O Emissions
El Salvador's N₂O emissions have been significantly influenced by agricultural practices, particularly the use of chemical fertilizers. The increased adoption of these fertilizers in the 1970s led to a notable rise in N₂O emissions, as nitrous oxide is a potent greenhouse gas emitted from agricultural soils. This trend continued into the 21st century with the adoption of modern agricultural techniques, further intensifying emissions. However, recent years have seen fluctuations, with a marked decrease in 2022, possibly linked to changes in agricultural practices or economic factors.
Impact of Energy and Waste Management
While agriculture remains the dominant source of N₂O emissions, energy and waste sectors have also contributed. The energy sector saw gradual increases in emissions until the early 2000s, after which there was a slight decline, potentially due to the introduction of renewable energy initiatives in 2010. Waste management programs implemented in 2015 aimed to reduce methane emissions, indirectly impacting N₂O emissions by improving overall waste processing efficiency.
Economic and Environmental Shifts
The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 led to an economic slowdown, temporarily reducing industrial activity and transportation, which likely contributed to a decrease in overall emissions. This period of reduced emissions highlights the potential impact of economic activities on greenhouse gas outputs. As El Salvador continues to develop, balancing economic growth with environmental sustainability remains a critical challenge.
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.