Pakistan's Sources of N2O Emissions
Key Insights
Agricultural Expansion Drives Emissions
Pakistan's N₂O emissions have been significantly influenced by its agricultural sector. Since the introduction of the Green Revolution in 1958, the use of nitrogen-based fertilizers has surged, leading to a steady increase in emissions from agriculture. This sector remains the dominant source of N₂O emissions, contributing a substantial portion of the country's total emissions. The decadal data shows a consistent rise in emissions from agriculture, reflecting the intensification of farming practices over the years.
Energy Sector's Growing Impact
The energy sector in Pakistan has also seen a notable increase in N₂O emissions, particularly since the discovery of the Sui Gas Field in 1974. The shift towards natural gas as a primary energy source initially reduced CO₂ emissions but led to increased N₂O emissions due to fugitive emissions. The initiation of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor in 2013 further accelerated energy infrastructure development, including coal-fired power plants, contributing to the rise in emissions from this sector.
Complex Trends in Industrial and Waste Emissions
While the industrial sector's N₂O emissions have fluctuated, they have generally remained lower compared to agriculture and energy. The waste sector, however, has shown a gradual increase in emissions, reflecting urbanization and population growth. Events like the 2010 floods and the 2005 earthquake have temporarily influenced emissions, but the long-term trend remains upward due to ongoing development and reconstruction efforts.
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.