United Kingdom's Sources of N2O Emissions
Key Insights
Agricultural Emissions Dominate
Throughout the decades, agriculture has been the primary source of N2O emissions in the United Kingdom. The data reveals a significant increase in emissions from agriculture, particularly during the mid-20th century, peaking around the 1980s. This trend aligns with the post-war agricultural boom, where increased food production was necessary to support a growing population. Despite a decline in recent decades, agriculture remains the largest contributor to N2O emissions, underscoring the sector's ongoing environmental impact.
Industrial Shifts and Emission Changes
The industrial sector experienced dramatic shifts in N2O emissions, particularly during the 1970s and 1980s. The rapid industrialization and subsequent decline in emissions can be linked to the UK's economic transitions, including the privatization of the electricity industry in 1990. This shift led to a reduction in coal use and a move towards cleaner energy sources, significantly impacting industrial emissions. The data reflects these changes, with notable decreases in industrial N2O emissions in the late 20th century.
Energy and Waste Contributions
Energy-related N2O emissions have shown a gradual decline since the late 20th century, reflecting the UK's transition towards renewable energy sources. The discovery of North Sea oil in 1967 initially increased emissions, but subsequent energy policies have mitigated this impact. Waste emissions, while smaller in scale, have steadily increased, highlighting the need for improved waste management practices. The UK's commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, as seen in the Climate Change Act of 2008, continues to drive efforts towards sustainable energy and waste solutions.
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.