Kiribati's Sources of N2O Emissions
Key Insights
Early Emissions and Independence
Kiribati's anthropogenic N₂O emissions have been relatively low historically, with notable increases beginning in the mid-20th century. The country's independence from the United Kingdom in 1979 marked a period of infrastructural development, which likely contributed to a modest rise in emissions. However, the data does not show a significant spike in N₂O emissions during this time, suggesting that the impact was more pronounced in CO₂ emissions due to construction activities.
Agricultural Expansion and Emissions
The early 2000s saw an expansion in Kiribati's copra production, which is reflected in the increased N₂O emissions from agriculture. This period coincides with a rise in emissions from agricultural activities, likely due to the use of fertilizers. The data indicates a steady increase in agricultural emissions, highlighting the sector's growing contribution to the country's overall N₂O emissions profile.
Renewable Energy Initiatives
In 2010, Kiribati's introduction of solar energy projects marked a significant shift towards reducing reliance on fossil fuels. While the data primarily focuses on N₂O emissions, this initiative likely contributed to a broader reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, particularly CO₂. The move towards renewable energy aligns with the country's commitment to sustainable development, as emphasized during the 2015 Pacific Climate Change Conference. This focus on sustainability may have helped stabilize N₂O emissions from energy sources in recent years.
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.