Ammonia abatement and its impact on emissions of nitrous oxide and methane in Europe—Part 1: method

Agriculture is an important source of NH3, which contributes to acidification and eutrophication, as well as emissions of the greenhouse gases CH4 and N2O. Because of their common sources, emission reduction measures for one of these gases may affect emissions of others. These interrelations are often ignored in policy making. This study presents an analysis of the effects of measures to reduce NH3 emissions on emissions of N2O and CH4 from agriculture in Europe. The analysis combines information from the NH3 module of the Regional Air pollution INformation and Simulation (RAINS) model for Europe with the IPCC method for national greenhouse gas inventories. The IPCC method for estimating agricultural emissions of N2O and CH4 is adjusted in order to use it in combination with the RAINS database for the European agricultural sector. As an example, we applied the adjusted method to the agricultural sector in the Netherlands and found that application of several NH3 abatement options may result in a substantial increase in N2O emissions while the effect on CH4 emissions is relatively small. In Part 2 of this paper we focus on the resulting emissions for all European countries for 1990 and 2010.