The FAOSTAT database of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture, including crop and livestock production, forestry and associated land use changes, are responsible for a significant fraction of anthropogenic emissions, up to 30% according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Yet while emissions...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2013-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/1/015009 |
| _version_ | 1797748332167168000 |
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| author | Francesco N Tubiello Mirella Salvatore Simone Rossi Alessandro Ferrara Nuala Fitton Pete Smith |
| author_facet | Francesco N Tubiello Mirella Salvatore Simone Rossi Alessandro Ferrara Nuala Fitton Pete Smith |
| author_sort | Francesco N Tubiello |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture, including crop and livestock production, forestry and associated land use changes, are responsible for a significant fraction of anthropogenic emissions, up to 30% according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Yet while emissions from fossil fuels are updated yearly and by multiple sources—including national-level statistics from the International Energy Agency (IEA)—no comparable efforts for reporting global statistics for agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) emissions exist: the latest complete assessment was the 2007 IPCC report, based on 2005 emission data. This gap is critical for several reasons. First, potentially large climate funding could be linked in coming decades to more precise estimates of emissions and mitigation potentials. For many developing countries, and especially the least developed ones, this requires improved assessments of AFOLU emissions. Second, growth in global emissions from fossil fuels has outpaced that from AFOLU during every decade of the period 1961–2010, so the relative contribution of the latter to total climate forcing has diminished over time, with a need for regular updates. We present results from a new GHG database developed at FAO, providing a complete and coherent time series of emission statistics over a reference period 1961–2010, at country level, based on FAOSTAT activity data and IPCC Tier 1 methodology. We discuss results at global and regional level, focusing on trends in the agriculture sector and net deforestation. Our results complement those available from the IPCC, extending trend analysis to a longer historical period and, critically, beyond 2005 to more recent years. In particular, from 2000 to 2010, we find that agricultural emissions increased by 1.1% annually, reaching 4.6 Gt CO _2 yr ^−1 in 2010 (up to 5.4–5.8 Gt CO _2 yr ^−1 with emissions from biomass burning and organic soils included). Over the same decade 2000–2010, the ratio of agriculture to fossil fuel emissions has decreased, from 17.2% to 13.7%, and the decrease is even greater for the ratio of net deforestation to fossil fuel emissions: from 19.1% to 10.1%. In fact, in the year 2000, emissions from agriculture have been consistently larger—about 1.2 Gt CO _2 yr ^−1 in 2010—than those from net deforestation. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:04:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-26e122fb1fd342e8a96639f3ba40736a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:04:20Z |
| publishDate | 2013-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
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| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-26e122fb1fd342e8a96639f3ba40736a2023-08-09T14:26:17ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262013-01-018101500910.1088/1748-9326/8/1/015009The FAOSTAT database of greenhouse gas emissions from agricultureFrancesco N Tubiello0Mirella Salvatore1Simone Rossi2Alessandro Ferrara3Nuala Fitton4Pete Smith5Climate, Energy and Tenure Division, Natural Resources Management and Environment Department, FAO , Via Terme di Caracalla, Rome, I-00153, ItalyClimate, Energy and Tenure Division, Natural Resources Management and Environment Department, FAO , Via Terme di Caracalla, Rome, I-00153, ItalyClimate, Energy and Tenure Division, Natural Resources Management and Environment Department, FAO , Via Terme di Caracalla, Rome, I-00153, Italy; Statistics Division, Economic and Social Development Department, FAO , Via Terme di Caracalla, Rome, I-00153, ItalyClimate, Energy and Tenure Division, Natural Resources Management and Environment Department, FAO , Via Terme di Caracalla, Rome, I-00153, ItalyInstitute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Aberdeen , 23 St Machar Drive, Aberdeen AB24 3UU, UKInstitute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Aberdeen , 23 St Machar Drive, Aberdeen AB24 3UU, UKGreenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture, including crop and livestock production, forestry and associated land use changes, are responsible for a significant fraction of anthropogenic emissions, up to 30% according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Yet while emissions from fossil fuels are updated yearly and by multiple sources—including national-level statistics from the International Energy Agency (IEA)—no comparable efforts for reporting global statistics for agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) emissions exist: the latest complete assessment was the 2007 IPCC report, based on 2005 emission data. This gap is critical for several reasons. First, potentially large climate funding could be linked in coming decades to more precise estimates of emissions and mitigation potentials. For many developing countries, and especially the least developed ones, this requires improved assessments of AFOLU emissions. Second, growth in global emissions from fossil fuels has outpaced that from AFOLU during every decade of the period 1961–2010, so the relative contribution of the latter to total climate forcing has diminished over time, with a need for regular updates. We present results from a new GHG database developed at FAO, providing a complete and coherent time series of emission statistics over a reference period 1961–2010, at country level, based on FAOSTAT activity data and IPCC Tier 1 methodology. We discuss results at global and regional level, focusing on trends in the agriculture sector and net deforestation. Our results complement those available from the IPCC, extending trend analysis to a longer historical period and, critically, beyond 2005 to more recent years. In particular, from 2000 to 2010, we find that agricultural emissions increased by 1.1% annually, reaching 4.6 Gt CO _2 yr ^−1 in 2010 (up to 5.4–5.8 Gt CO _2 yr ^−1 with emissions from biomass burning and organic soils included). Over the same decade 2000–2010, the ratio of agriculture to fossil fuel emissions has decreased, from 17.2% to 13.7%, and the decrease is even greater for the ratio of net deforestation to fossil fuel emissions: from 19.1% to 10.1%. In fact, in the year 2000, emissions from agriculture have been consistently larger—about 1.2 Gt CO _2 yr ^−1 in 2010—than those from net deforestation.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/1/015009agricultureAFOLUgreenhouse gasemissionsFAOSTAT |
| spellingShingle | Francesco N Tubiello Mirella Salvatore Simone Rossi Alessandro Ferrara Nuala Fitton Pete Smith The FAOSTAT database of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture Environmental Research Letters agriculture AFOLU greenhouse gas emissions FAOSTAT |
| title | The FAOSTAT database of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture |
| title_full | The FAOSTAT database of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture |
| title_fullStr | The FAOSTAT database of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture |
| title_full_unstemmed | The FAOSTAT database of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture |
| title_short | The FAOSTAT database of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture |
| title_sort | faostat database of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture |
| topic | agriculture AFOLU greenhouse gas emissions FAOSTAT |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/1/015009 |
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