Fertilizers and climate change
Does agriculture contribute to global warming?
What is the carbon footprint of mineral fertilizers? How to feed a growing world population while preserving the climate? What are the best options for sustainable agriculture?
Farmers and the general public are searching for answers to some of the most serious issues of this century to date. With more than a hundred years’ experience in plant nutrition, we believe that it is our role to inform farmers about the carbon footprint of our nitrogen fertilizers.
What is carbon footprint?
Production, transportation and use of mineral fertilizers emit greenhouse gases (GHG), notably carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O), which contribute to global warming. At the same time, fertilizers enhance agricultural productivity. Fertilizers stimulate CO2 uptake by the crop, increase yield and reduce the need to cultivate new land.
To understand the overall impact of fertilizers on climate, emissions and absorptions of GHG need to be evaluated throughout every stage of the “life” of a fertilizer. This is commonly referred to as life-cycle analysis, helping to determine the “carbon footprint” of a product and how to possibly reduce it.
Assessing the carbon footprint of ammonium nitrate
The illustration below explains the life-cycle of ammonium nitrate (AN), the most common source of nitrogen in European agriculture. It can be found in commercial products such as CAN, NPK, NP, NK etc. GHG emissions and uptake are shown for each stage of the fertilizer life-cycle, including production in a typical Yara plant, transportation and application, growing of crops, their consumption as food, feed or bio-energy, and the protection of natural CO2 sinks such as forests and wetlands.
