Ammonia abatement and its impact on emissions of nitrous oxide and methane—Part 2: application for Europe

Agricultural emissions of NH3, N2O, and CH4 come, to a large extent, from common sources. It has been demonstrated that controlling NH3 emissions through application of technical measures might have an impact on emissions of N2O and CH4. This paper presents estimates of NH3, N2O and CH4 emissions from European agriculture for 1990 and four scenarios for the year 2010. The first scenario assumes no specific NH3 abatement, but emissions of all three gases decline between 1990 and 2010 as a result of projected reductions in animal numbers and fertiliser consumption in Europe. The other three scenarios assume different levels of NH3 abatement in Europe, including the maximum feasible reduction case. They are compared with respect to their effect on emissions of N2O and CH4. The results indicate that in Europe, abating agricultural emissions of NH3 may cause releases of N2O from this sector up to 15% higher than in the case of no NH3 control. There may be substantial differences in the observed effects between various countries depending on the degree and type of NH3 control options applied. The effect of NH3 abatement on CH4 emissions was found to be negligible.