Nitrous oxide and methane: the forgotten gases in the forests and climate change debate

Catriona Moss in Responding to Climate Change: Policy makers seeking to reduce greenhouse gases from deforestation cannot ignore the levels of nitrous oxide and methane released into the atmosphere as part of land conversion for palm oil, soya bean and other crops, scientists say.

While these forgotten gases account for only a small fraction of total greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation, nitrous oxide is up to 300 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere when compared to carbon dioxide over a 100-year time period. Methane is 25 times more effective, says Kristell Hergoualc’h, a scientist with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). As such, they need to start being a bigger part of the climate change debate.

Forest degradation and conversion are responsible for around 12 percent of overall greenhouse gas emissions – the majority of which is carbon dioxide released from forest fires and deforestation.

...Peatlands and mangroves are well known for their huge carbon-storing potential – mangrove soils alone store up to 4 times more carbon than trees – however, less is known about methane and nitrous oxide emissions, which may be important for their global warming potential, warns Hergoualc’h....

Humber Peatlands National Reserve, shot by Simon Huguet, Wikimedia Commons via Geograph UK, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license