Germany's Sources of N2O Emissions
Key Insights
Agriculture Dominates, Then Eases
Germany's nitrous oxide emissions have long been led by agriculture, which accounts for roughly half of the total. After a steady build-up through the mid‑20th century, agriculture peaked in the late 1970s at around 40 megatonnes. Since then, the trend has moved downward, sliding through the 2000s to around 20 today-still the largest single source, but clearly on a declining path.
Industry And Energy Recede
Industry surged during the post‑war era, reaching just over 30 megatonnes in the early 1970s before a sustained retreat set in, bringing it down to only a few megatonnes now. Energy followed a gentler arc: rising from the 1950s to a late‑1990s high near 10 megatonnes, then easing to roughly 4-5 today. "Other" sources have steadily fallen since the late 1970s, from around 4-5 to below 1. Waste remains small, edging up to a bit over 2 megatonnes without major volatility.
Momentum And Next Steps
The dominant sources-agriculture, industry, energy, and other-are all on declining trajectories, with agriculture still the key driver. Continued progress in agriculture will matter most for national totals, while maintaining downward momentum in energy and industry can consolidate gains. The direction is encouraging; keeping the pace up-especially in agriculture-will be central to further reducing Germany's overall climate impact from nitrous oxide.
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: Gütschow, Johannes; Busch, Daniel; Pflüger, Mika (2024): The PRIMAP-hist national historical emissions time series (1750-2023) v2.6. Zenodo.