While carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion accounts for more than 80% of climate change and dominates most sectors, Working Land GHG emissions come primarily from three gases:
- methane (CH4)
- nitrous oxide (N2O)
- carbon dioxide (CO2)
In fact ~75% of farm GHG impact comes from CH4 and N2O. While the volume of CH4 and N2O emissions are much lower in volume than CO2, these GHGs have a much greater ability to trap heat in the atmosphere. To simplify GHG accounting, each gas is assigned a value called the Global Warming Potential (GWP) that shows its ability to trap heat in the atmosphere compared to CO2. The common unit for GWP is the carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) most recent GWP for these gases are as follows:
INSERT TABLE HERE.
Over a 100-year period, CH4 and N2O are 34 and 298 times more potent than CO2, so they have GWP values of 34 and 298, respectively.
Farms, forest owners, foresters, landscapers and home owners interested in mitigating emissions should focus on these three gases (CH4, N2O, CO2).
