Guatemala's Sources of N2O Emissions
Key Insights
Agricultural Emissions Dominate
Guatemala's N₂O emissions have been predominantly driven by agriculture, with a significant increase observed over the decades. The expansion of agricultural activities, particularly during the Liberal Reform and Coffee Boom in the late 19th century, likely contributed to this trend. The use of fertilizers in coffee plantations and other crops has been a major source of N₂O emissions. The data shows a consistent rise in emissions from agriculture, with notable spikes in the early 21st century, reflecting the intensification of agro-industrial activities such as palm oil and sugarcane cultivation.
Energy Sector's Growing Contribution
While agriculture remains the primary source of N₂O emissions, the energy sector has shown a marked increase in recent decades. The rise in emissions from energy can be attributed to the country's economic development and increased energy consumption. Notably, the year 2015 saw a significant spike in energy-related N₂O emissions, which aligns with global trends of rising energy demand. This sector's contribution to overall emissions has grown, highlighting the need for sustainable energy solutions.
Impact of Natural Disasters
Natural disasters have also played a role in shaping Guatemala's emissions profile. Events like the 1976 earthquake and the 2018 Fuego volcano eruption disrupted agricultural activities, potentially affecting N₂O emissions. These disasters necessitated reconstruction efforts, which likely led to temporary increases in emissions from the production and transportation of materials. While the immediate impacts were significant, the long-term effects on emissions remain less clear.
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.