Zambia's Sources of N2O Emissions
Key Insights
Agricultural Dominance in Emissions
Zambia's N2O emissions have been predominantly driven by agriculture, consistently contributing the largest share over the decades. The decadal data reveals a steady increase in emissions from this sector, with significant growth observed from the mid-20th century onwards. This trend aligns with the country's agricultural expansion in the early 2000s, which likely intensified N2O emissions due to increased fertilizer use and livestock numbers. Despite fluctuations, agriculture remains the primary source of N2O emissions in Zambia.
Economic Shifts and Industrial Impact
The industrial sector's contribution to N2O emissions saw notable changes, particularly during periods of economic transition. The economic liberalization in 1991 spurred industrial growth, which likely contributed to increased emissions. However, the sector's share of total emissions has decreased over time, reflecting shifts in industrial activities and possibly improved emission controls. The copper price collapse in 1973 and subsequent economic downturns also likely influenced these trends, temporarily reducing industrial emissions.
Energy Sector Developments
Zambia's energy sector has experienced significant transformations, particularly with the increased investment in renewable energy sources like hydropower and solar energy. These developments have contributed to a gradual reduction in N2O emissions from energy production. The shift towards renewables, especially in the 2010s, reflects Zambia's efforts to diversify its energy mix and reduce reliance on fossil fuels, thereby mitigating emissions from this sector.
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.