Zambia's Sources of N2O Emissions
Key Insights
Agriculture Dominates The Story
Zambia's nitrous oxide profile is overwhelmingly shaped by agriculture, which accounts for nearly 90% of national N2O emissions and adds up to roughly 800 megatonnes over time. After a long, gradual build-up, emissions have trended upward since the early 1970s, rising from around 6 megatonnes to just over 10 in recent years-the highest levels in the record.
Mid-Century Surges And Reversals
The most dramatic shift came during the 1940s, when agriculture-related emissions climbed rapidly, followed by a period of easing from the late 1940s into the early 1970s. Since then, the trajectory has been steadily upward. Non-agricultural sources-energy, industry, waste, and other-remain comparatively small: industry grew mid-century before settling, energy ticked up after 2010, and waste and other show modest increases. Together, these sources are a fraction of agriculture's contribution.
Outlook And Near-Term Priorities
The current pattern is clear: agriculture is still on a gentle upward path and is the only source large enough to materially shift Zambia's N2O trend. To reduce the country's climate impact from nitrous oxide-already around a tenth of the overall warming impact-progress hinges on bending agriculture's emissions downward. Smaller sectors can add support, but they should not distract from the primary task of tackling agriculture's rise.
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 created using a large language model (LLM) in combination with our data, historic events, and a structured approach for best accuracy by 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.