India is the second largest emitter of nitrous oxide in the world.
Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a greenhouse gas that warms the atmosphere more than carbon dioxide, and India is the second-largest source of this gas in the world.
India accounted for about 11% of such global man-made emissions in 2020, topped only by China at 16%.
According to a global assessment of N2O emissions published in the journal Earth System Science Data on June 12, the major source of these emissions is fertilizer use.
The study says the concentration of atmospheric N2O reached 336 parts per billion in 2022, which is about 25% above the levels seen before the industrial age.
In comparison, the concentration of carbon dioxide was 417 parts per million in 2022.
This means that current levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are a thousand times greater than nitrous oxide, making carbon dioxide reduction a major priority among countries trying to stop climate change.
In the last four decades, N2O emissions from human activity have increased by 40% (or three million metric tonnes of N2O per year).
Growth rates between 2020 and 2022 is higher than they have ever been since reliable measurements started in 1980.
The top five emitting countries by volume of anthropogenic N2O emissions in 2020 were China (16.7%), India (10.9%), the United States (5.7%), Brazil (5.3%), and Russia (4.6%).
