Guinea-Bissau's Sources of N2O Emissions
Key Insights
Agricultural Dominance in Emissions
Guinea-Bissau's N2O emissions have been predominantly driven by agriculture, which has consistently been the largest contributor over the decades. The expansion of agricultural activities, particularly during the Portuguese colonial era and post-independence reforms, significantly increased emissions. The 1956 colonial agricultural expansion and the 1980s post-independence reforms both led to land-use changes that released stored carbon, contributing to a rise in emissions. These historical shifts underscore the long-standing impact of agriculture on the country's emissions profile.
Impact of Conflict and Reforms
The Guinea-Bissau War of Independence and subsequent civil conflicts disrupted agricultural practices, temporarily altering emission patterns. The 1973 war likely caused a short-term increase in emissions due to biomass burning, while the 1998 civil war led to decreased agricultural productivity, affecting emissions from rice paddies and livestock. However, these conflicts also resulted in increased CO₂ emissions from burning fossil fuels and biomass, highlighting the complex interplay between socio-political events and emission trends.
Recent Trends and Cashew Expansion
In recent decades, the expansion of cashew nut production has been a notable development. While cashew trees can sequester carbon, the initial land conversion for plantations likely led to a temporary increase in emissions. This shift in agricultural focus reflects ongoing changes in land use and their environmental impacts. Despite these fluctuations, agriculture remains the dominant source of N2O emissions in Guinea-Bissau, shaping the country's overall emissions trajectory.
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.