India is the world’s second largest source of nitrous oxide (N2O), a greenhouse gas that heats up the atmosphere far more than carbon dioxide.
Nearly 11% of such global man-made emissions in 2020 were from India, topped only by China at 16%.
he major source of these emissions comes from fertilizer usage, according to a global assessment of N2O emissions published in the journal Earth System Science Data recently.
Because nitrous oxide stays longer in the atmosphere and is rising rapidly, scientists in recent years have been warning that it must also be tackled with a greater sense of urgency.
Agricultural production using nitrogen fertilizers, such as ammonia, and animal manure contributed 74% of the total anthropogenic N2O emissions in the last decade.