Can fertilizer overuse emit greenhouse gases?

Most of the talk around greenhouse gases is about CO2 and methane (CH4).

Did you know that using too much fertilizers can emit a different greenhouse gas?

How?

In addition to CO2 & CH4, another important greenhouse gas is Nitrous Oxide (N2O) – yes, what we call the laughing gas. Fertilizers contain nitrogen, and overapplication of fertilizers can lead to excess nitrogen being converted to N2O and released to the atmosphere.

The world emits only about 12 million tons of N2O per year. This is quite small compared to 35 billion tons of CO2 per annum. But hold on, the global warming potential is about 275 times that of CO2, which translates the total N2O emissions to a bit over 3 billion tons of CO2 equivalent!

This is why methods such as precision farming that use only the required amount of fertilizers could play a significant role in climate action – they not only reduce the costs of fertilizers, but also reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture.