{"id":12212,"date":"2020-10-07T17:16:08","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T15:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/?p=12212"},"modified":"2020-10-07T17:16:08","modified_gmt":"2020-10-07T15:16:08","slug":"rising-nitrous-oxide-emissions-jeopardize-climate-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/2020\/10\/rising-nitrous-oxide-emissions-jeopardize-climate-goals\/","title":{"rendered":"Rising nitrous oxide emissions jeopardize climate goals"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is one of the many results from a new study led by Professor Hanqin Tian<\/a>, Director of the International Center for Climate and Global Change Research at Auburn University in Alabama USA, published today in Nature.<\/p>\n

Atmospheric growth in N2<\/sub>O is accelerating<\/h2>\n

Professor Tian led an international consortium of scientists from 48 research institutions in 14 countries under the umbrella of the Global Carbon Project<\/a> and the International Nitrogen Initiative<\/a>. The goal of the effort was to produce the most comprehensive assessment to date of all sources and sinks of the potent greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide (N2<\/sub>O).<\/p>\n

The breakthrough study points to an alarming trend affecting climate change:<\/p>\n

\u201cN2<\/sub>O concentrations in the atmosphere have been stable for thousands of years, but the N2<\/sub>O concentration has risen dramatically over the past few decades and its growth has accelerated over the last 10 years due to emissions from various human activities\u201d, said senior scientist Dr. Rona Thompson, from NILU \u2013 Norwegian Institute for Air Research, and one of the key authors of the study.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dominant driver of the increase in atmospheric N2<\/sub>O comes from agriculture,\u201d Tian said, \u201cand the currently growing demand for food and, in particular meat, will just further increase global N2O emissions. There is a conflict between the way we are feeding people and stabilizing the climate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not compatible with the Paris accord<\/h2>\n

The most pertinent result of the study, coauthors agree, was to find that current trends in N2<\/sub>O emissions are not compatible with pathways consistent to achieve the climate goals of the Paris accord.<\/p>\n

\u201cCurrent emissions are tracking global temperature increases above 3\u00b0C, twice the temperature target of the Paris accord,\u201d Robert Jackson said. Jackson is a Professor and coauthor from Stanford University in California USA, and chair of the Global Carbon Project.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the N2<\/sub>O challenges lies in the fact that on a global scale, we are not using nitrogen-based fertilizers efficiently. At the same time, this gives us a large opportunity for reducing N2<\/sub>O emissions\u201d, says Dr. Rona Thompson.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is especially true for regions where excess nitrogen is being used with no benefit in terms of crop yield, for instance in East Asia. Reducing the excess use of nitrogen fertilizers in these regions will have big pay-off in terms of reducing N2<\/sub>O emissions as well as improving air, soil and water quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u00a0The
The figure shows the balance of global N2<\/sub>O sources and sinks during 2007\u22122016 based on bottom-up (BU) and top-down (TD) approaches. Copyright: Global Carbon Project<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Less nitrogen, better quality of life<\/h2>\n

As of now, Europe is the only region in the world that has successfully reduced N2<\/sub>O emissions over the past two decades. This is due to policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution from industry, as well as from agriculture by improving nitrogen fertilizer use efficiency.<\/p>\n

In the study, the largest contributors to the growth in global N2<\/sub>O emissions were found to come from East Asia, South Asia, and South America. In these regions, nitrogen fertilizer use was the dominant factor driving the emissions. Generally, the highest growth rates in emissions are found in emerging economies, particularly Brazil, China and India, where crop production and livestock numbers have both increased.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis study shows that we now have a comprehensive understanding of the N2<\/sub>O budget, including climate impacts\u201d, Thompson concludes. \u201cAs scientists we are able to assess and quantify measures to reduce N2<\/sub>O emissions. Many of these measures will also improve water and air quality benefiting both human health and ecosystems. This allows us to appropriately inform environmental policies.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is one of the many results from a new study led by Professor Hanqin Tian, Director of the International Center for Climate and Global Change Research at Auburn University in Alabama USA, published today in Nature. Atmospheric growth in N2O is accelerating Professor Tian led an international consortium of scientists from 48 research institutions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsarchive"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12212"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12228,"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12212\/revisions\/12228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}