Togo's Sources of N2O Emissions
Key Insights
Agricultural Dominance in Emissions
Togo's N2O emissions have been predominantly driven by agriculture, which has consistently been the largest contributor over the decades. The decadal data reveals a steady increase in emissions from this sector, with significant spikes in the early 2000s and 2020s. This trend aligns with agricultural modernization initiatives around 2000, which likely intensified land-use changes and fertilizer use, contributing to higher emissions. The agricultural sector's share of total N2O emissions has remained substantial, underscoring its pivotal role in Togo's emission profile.
Energy and Waste Contributions
While agriculture remains the primary source, emissions from energy and waste sectors have also shown gradual increases. The energy sector, although a smaller contributor, has seen a consistent rise in emissions, reflecting Togo's growing energy demands. The waste sector, too, has contributed to the overall emissions, albeit to a lesser extent. The increase in emissions from these sectors highlights the need for sustainable energy and waste management practices to mitigate their environmental impact.
Impact of Recent Initiatives
Recent initiatives, such as the national reforestation program and renewable energy projects, aim to curb emissions and promote sustainability. The reforestation efforts, launched in 2015, seek to enhance carbon sequestration, while renewable energy projects in the 2010s aim to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. These initiatives are crucial for Togo's long-term emission reduction strategy, although their full impact will depend on successful implementation and scaling. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 temporarily reduced emissions due to economic slowdowns, but the long-term effects remain to be seen.
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.