Agricultural release of N20 tracked

LONDON: The rising use of nitrogenbased fertilisers is driving up global emissions of nitrous oxide, a lesserknown greenhouse gas, complicating efforts to limit climate change, scientists report.

Most of the focus in curbing climatewarming gas emissions has focused on the most abundant, CO2, and one of the most potent, methane.

But nitrous oxide (N20), has received less attention as a longlasting warming agent.

‘‘There’s much less policy attention on nitrous oxide, and not so many mitigation options, so the emissions just continue sailing on upwards,’’ study coauthor Glen Peters, a climate scientist at the Oslobased CICERO Centre for International Climate Research, said.

The fiveyear study, published in the journal Nature found that from 1980 to 2016, N20 emissions from agriculture rose annually by 1.4% on average. — Reuters