Lesotho's Sources of N2O Emissions
Key Insights
Agriculture Sets The Tone
Across the historical record, agriculture drives Lesotho's nitrous oxide profile, contributing about four-fifths of national N2O. Energy is a distant second at just over a tenth, while industry, waste, and other sources together add only a small share. This dominance means national trends largely mirror what happens in agriculture.
From Surge To Plateau
After modest levels through the early 20th century, agriculture's emissions surged during the post-war era and, by the late 1950s, settled into a long period of relatively steady output. From the late 1950s to around the mid-2000s, agriculture generally hovered near the upper half of the historical range, often around 0.5 to 0.6 megatonnes, with year-to-year variation but no major sustained rise. Energy grew steadily from very low levels, approaching about 0.1 megatonnes by around 2010.
Recent Declines And Outlook
Since the late 2000s, the picture has shifted: agriculture has trended down, falling from around 0.6 megatonnes to roughly 0.35 by the early 2020s. Energy has eased slightly from its recent peak, and smaller sectors have been broadly stable or edging down. The current trajectory shows the largest source-agriculture-declining, with energy flat-to-slightly lower. Sustaining and accelerating these declines in the dominant sectors would deliver the biggest reductions in Lesotho's N2O-related warming impact.
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.