United Republic of Tanzania's Sources of N2O Emissions
Key Insights
Agricultural Expansion Drives Emissions
Throughout the decades, the United Republic of Tanzania has seen a significant rise in N₂O emissions, primarily driven by agricultural activities. The data reveals that agriculture has consistently been the largest contributor to N₂O emissions, with a marked increase from the mid-20th century onwards. This trend aligns with historical events such as the Villagization Program in the 1970s, which led to extensive land-use changes and deforestation, further amplifying emissions.
Economic Shifts and Energy Developments
The economic liberalization in the mid-1980s marked a pivotal shift, encouraging industrial growth and energy production, which contributed to rising emissions from the energy sector. The discovery and development of the Songo Songo gas field in the late 1990s and early 2000s introduced natural gas as a cleaner energy source, potentially reducing CO₂ emissions. However, the associated increase in CH₄ emissions from gas extraction may have offset some of these benefits.
Recent Industrialization and Its Impact
In recent years, Tanzania's push towards industrialization and infrastructure projects, such as the Stiegler's Gorge Dam, have further influenced emission trends. While these initiatives aim to boost economic growth and energy capacity, they also contribute to increased emissions from industrial activities and land-use changes. The ongoing exploration of oil and gas resources continues to shape the country's emissions profile, highlighting the complex interplay between development and environmental impact.
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.