Agriculture as a Source of GHGs - Climate Resilient Agriculture for Ensuring Food Security - page 40

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management and N 2 O emissions from soils. In
Oceania, nitrogen fertilizer use has increased
exponentially over the past 45 years with a 5- and
2.5-fold increase since 1990 in New Zealand and
Australia, respectively. In North America, in con-
trast, nitrogen fertilizer use has remained stable;
the main driver for increasing emissions is man-
agement of manure from cattle, poultry, and swine
production and manure application to soils. In
both regions, conservation policies have resulted
in reduced CO 2 emissions from land conversion.
Land clearing in Australia has declined by 60 %
since 1990 with vegetation management policies
restricting further clearing, while in North
America, some marginal croplands have been
returned to woodland or grassland.
Western Europe is the only region where,
according to US-EPA ( 2006b ), GHG emissions
from agriculture are projected to decrease to
2020 (Fig. 3.4 ). This is associated with the adop-
tion of a number of climate-specifi c and other
environmental policies in the European Union, as
well as economic constraints on agriculture.
All this has contributed to a rise in greenhouse
gases in the atmosphere. Fossil fuels such as oil,
coal, and natural gas supply most of the energy
needed to run vehicles and generate electricity
for industries, households, etc. The energy sector
is responsible for about ¾ of the carbon dioxide
emissions, 1/5 of the methane emissions, and a
large quantity of nitrous oxide. It also produces
nitrogen oxides (N 2 O) and carbon monoxide
(CO) which are not greenhouse gases but do have
an infl uence on the chemical cycles in the atmo-
sphere that produce or destroy greenhouse gases.

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