Guinea's Sources of N2O Emissions
Key Insights
Agricultural Emissions Dominate
Guinea's N2O emissions have been predominantly driven by agriculture, which has consistently been the largest contributor over the decades. The decadal data reveals a steady increase in emissions from this sector, with significant spikes in recent years. Notably, the year 2016 saw a substantial rise in agricultural emissions, coinciding with the Boké mining boom, which likely intensified agricultural activities to support the growing population and workforce. This trend underscores the critical role of agriculture in Guinea's emissions profile.
Energy Sector's Modest Impact
While the energy sector has contributed to N2O emissions, its impact has been relatively modest compared to agriculture. The data shows a gradual increase in emissions from energy, with minor fluctuations over the decades. The completion of the Kinkon Hydroelectric Dam in 1963 marked a shift towards renewable energy, reducing reliance on fossil fuels. However, the energy sector's contribution remains small, highlighting the need for further investment in clean energy to mitigate emissions.
Industrial and Waste Emissions
Industrial emissions have been negligible, reflecting Guinea's limited industrial base. In contrast, waste-related emissions have shown a slow but steady increase. The transition to cleaner cooking fuels in 2021 aimed to address emissions from traditional biomass use, contributing to a gradual reduction in waste-related emissions. This initiative, along with the 2023 surge in green energy investments, indicates a positive shift towards sustainable practices, although the overall impact on emissions remains to be seen.
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.