Earthscan book: Nitrous Oxide and Climate Change

Edited By Keith Smith

Nitrous oxide, N₂O, is the third most important (in global warming terms) of the greenhouse gases, after carbon dioxide and methane. As this book describes, although it only comprises 320 parts per billion of the earth's atmosphere, it has a GWP nearly 300 times greater than that of carbon dioxide.

Action is being taken to curb the industrial point-source emissions of N₂O, but measures to limit or reduce agricultural emissions are inherently more difficult to devise. As we enter an era in which measures are being explored to reduce fossil fuel use and/or capture or sequester the CO₂ emissions from the fuel, it is likely that the relative importance of N₂O in the 'Kyoto basket' of greenhouse gases will increase, because comparable mitigation measures for N₂O are inherently more difficult, and because expansion of the land area devoted to crops, to feed the increasing global population and to accommodate the current development of biofuels, is likely to lead to an increase in N fertiliser use, and thus N₂O emission, worldwide.The aim of this book is to provide a synthesis of scientific information on the primary sources and sinks of nitrous oxide and an assessment of likely trends in atmospheric concentrations over the next century and the potential for mitigation measures.

For more information and to order see here. For review copies of this book, please email Alice Haworth-Booth with the details of the publication. To order an inspection copy for a course, please click here, and for a 20% discount on any Earthscan book enter the voucher code JISC when ordering online.