Tonga's Sources of N2O Emissions
Key Insights
Agricultural Influence on Emissions
Throughout the decades, Tonga's N2O emissions have been predominantly driven by agricultural activities. The introduction of commercial agriculture in the 1960s marked a significant shift, with land-use changes contributing to increased emissions. This trend continued into the 1980s with the expansion of livestock farming, further elevating emissions due to enteric fermentation and manure management. The agricultural sector remains a key contributor to Tonga's N2O emissions, reflecting the country's reliance on agriculture for economic sustenance.
Energy and Industrial Developments
The 1990s saw a notable rise in emissions linked to increased use of imported fossil fuels. This period of economic development and population growth led to greater reliance on diesel generators and vehicles, contributing to higher CO₂ emissions. Although the energy sector's contribution to N2O emissions is relatively minor compared to agriculture, it highlights the impact of energy consumption patterns on overall emissions.
Modern Waste Management and Natural Disasters
The adoption of modern waste management practices around 2000 introduced new dynamics in Tonga's emissions profile. While improving waste management, these practices also led to increased methane emissions from landfills. Additionally, natural events such as Cyclone Rene in 2010 temporarily altered land use and increased emissions, underscoring the vulnerability of Tonga's emissions profile to environmental disruptions.
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.