Philippines' Sources of N2O Emissions
Key Insights
Agricultural Dominance in N2O Emissions
Throughout the decades, the Philippines has seen a significant rise in nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, primarily driven by agricultural activities. From the early 20th century, agriculture has been the dominant source of N2O emissions, contributing a substantial portion of the total emissions. This trend continued into the 21st century, with agriculture consistently accounting for the majority of N2O emissions, despite fluctuations in other sectors.
Energy Sector's Rising Influence
In recent decades, the energy sector has emerged as a significant contributor to N2O emissions in the Philippines. The 2010s marked a notable increase in emissions from energy, reflecting the country's growing reliance on fossil fuels for power generation. This shift is evident in the substantial rise in emissions during this period, highlighting the energy sector's increasing impact on the country's overall N2O emissions profile.
Impact of Natural Disasters and Economic Events
Natural disasters and economic events have also played a role in shaping the Philippines' N2O emissions. The eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 and typhoons like Haiyan in 2013 led to temporary spikes in emissions due to land-use changes and recovery efforts. Additionally, economic events such as the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997 and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 temporarily affected emissions, though their long-term impact was limited as emissions trends quickly rebounded.
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.