Iceland's Sources of N2O Emissions
Key Insights
Agriculture Dominates And Stabilizes
Iceland's nitrous oxide profile is defined by agriculture, which contributes roughly five-sixths of national N2O emissions. From the post-war era into the early 1970s, emissions climbed and reached a high in the mid-1970s. Since then, they have been broadly steady, hovering around a third of a megatonne for decades. In recent years-since the mid-2010s-agriculture has edged slightly downward to just over 0.30 megatonnes, signaling a gentle easing rather than a decisive decline.
Non-Agriculture Mostly Low And Easing
All other sources are far smaller than agriculture. Energy saw a short-lived rise through the 1970s to around 0.05 megatonnes before falling by the mid-1990s and stabilizing near 0.01. Industry has remained small and largely stable since the early 1970s with a slight downward tilt. "Other" sources grew modestly to the early 1990s, then declined to very low levels. Waste has trended slowly upward to roughly 0.01 megatonnes, but remains a minor part of the total.
Current Trajectory And Priorities
Today's picture shows agriculture stable to slightly declining and energy low and steady. To reduce overall N2O climate impact, the priority is to accelerate reductions in agriculture, where most emissions lie, while maintaining the gains that have kept energy-related emissions subdued.
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.