【新技术减少中国氮肥施用释放的温室气体】Wei-feng Zhang Zheng-xia Dou Pan He Xiao-Tang Ju David Powlson Dave Chadwick David Norse Yue-Lai Lu Ying Zhang Liang Wu Xin-Ping Chen Kenneth G. Cassman and Fu-Suo Zhang. New technologies reduce greenhouse gas emissions from nitrogenous fertilizer in China. PNAS 2013 doi: 10.1073-pnas.1210447110

Abstract

Synthetic nitrogen (N) fertilizer has played a key role in enhancing food production and keeping half of the world’s population adequately fed. However decades of N fertilizer overuse in many parts of the world have contributed to soil water and air pollution; reducing excessive N losses and emissions is a central environmental challenge in the 21st century. China’s participation is essential to global efforts in reducing N-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions because China is the largest producer and consumer of fertilizer N. To evaluate the impact of China’s use of N fertilizer we quantify the carbon footprint of China’s N fertilizer production and consumption chain using life cycle analysis. For every ton of N fertilizer manufactured and used 13.5 tons of CO₂-equivalent (eq) (t CO₂-eq) is emitted compared with 9.7 t CO₂-eq in Europe. Emissions in China tripled from 1980 [131 terrogram (Tg) of CO₂-eq (Tg CO₂-eq)] to 2010 (452 Tg CO