The Global Carbon Project (GCP) publishes the Global Nitrous Oxide Budget 2024 on June 12, 2024
- Anthropogenic nitrous oxide emissions grew 40% from 1980 to 2020, new study finds -

June 12, 2024

Press Release EN 日本語 Publication (Hanqin Tian et al., 2024)

Fig.01 : "The Global N2O Budget (2010-2019)"
Anthropogenic sources contributed 36% to total global N2O emissions (median estimate)
Fig.02 : "Regional N2O Budgets for 2010-2019"
In China, Europe, USA, Southern Asia, and Middle East agricultural emissions far exceed natural emissions. Agricultural emissions are exceeded by other anthropogenic emissions in Korea + Japan, Central America, and South Africa

Highlights

  • Global N2O emissions were about 17.8 (17.4–18.1) Tg N yr-1 over the 10-year period 2010-2019 (based on two approaches)
  • Global anthropogenic emissions increased by 40% from 1980 to 2020, dominated by nitrogen fertilization in croplands. The anthropogenic emission increase is almost exclusively responsible for the growth in atmospheric N2O
  • Soil N2O emissions are increasing due to interactions between nitrogen inputs and global warming, constituting an emerging positive N2O-climate feedback
  • The recent increase in global N2O emissions exceeds the emission trends of the least optimistic scenarios developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR6), underscoring the urgent need to mitigate N2O emissions