Climate change

Rising global temperatures challenge the world’s ability to develop sustainably. Climate affects all aspects of life, threatening ecological balance, economic development, food security and social harmony. Concerted, worldwide efforts are needed to reduce global warming and its effects through new energy sources and developing technology.

Climate change can be part of natural processes, but the present global warming is now being accepted as largely the effect of human economic activity within industry, agriculture, power generation and transport. All this is fuelled by population growth and rising consumption met by higher production from industry that results in emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), mainly from the combustion of fossil fuels. Agricultural expansion, including the massive removal of forests, also plays a role. Despite the quest for renewable energy sources, demand has fuelled steady growth in the use of oil, gas and coal. Fossil fuels thus remain the major energy source, while development of new emission management technologies and management practices in all sectors are being pursued, not least in industry and agriculture.

Rising temperatures, though, will impede agricultural production, severing poor countries’ ability to ensure food supplies. Rising sea levels will force millions to migrate and flood productive crop land. Melting glaciers will reduce water flows to some of the most densely populated areas of the world, hurting agricultural output and national income. Unchecked, global warming threatens the environment, the world economy, political stability, and society at large, and will have a profound impact on ecological balance and bio-diversity, food security, human habitation, economic growth and energy security.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) has stated that global warming “could become a major threat to world food security, as it has strong impact on food production, access and distribution.” Agriculture-dependent developing countries face the most serious risk, the poor becoming hardest hit. The least food-secure region, Sub-Saharan Africa, is considered the region most vulnerable to climate change.

The industrial sector, including the fertilizer industry and Yara, has an important role to play in climate change and the potential to make a difference. The same goes for the main stakeholders of Yara, the world’s farmers. The production of mineral fertilizers is energy-intensive with natural gas as a major component. At the same time, modern agriculture itself – regardless of the use of mineral fertilizers – is an energy-consuming enterprise, greatly contributing to global warming but with the potential to stem detrimental developments.

According to figures from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the energy-generation industry was responsible for 25.9 percent of global GHG emissions, industry for 19.4 percent; agriculture 13.5 and forestry 17.4. The production of fertilizer alone uses about 1.2 percent of world energy consumption, and is responsible for about 1.2 percent of global GHG emissions, totalling 500 million tons every year.

Agriculture and Yara itself are thus among the major contributors to GHG emissions and climate change. Agricultural production is energy-intensive, contributing to significant emissions of three main GHGs, carbon dioxide CO₂, methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide N₂O. These can be reduced, however, through active management of agricultural systems, management of agricultural organic soils and the restoration of degraded lands. Annual agricultural GHG emissions are expected to increase, because of escalating demand for food and shifts in diets. However, better management practices, with improved productivity, and emerging technologies may permit a reduction in emissions per unit food or protein produced. According to FAO, agricultural N2O emissions are projected to increase by 35–60 percent up to 2030 because of increased nitrogen fertilizer use and animal manure production.

Operating in an energy-intensive industry, Yara realizes that it needs to take a lead in meeting the climate challenge. By leveraging its global reach, driving the industry towards sustainable business development and setting global standards for production processes and application systems, Yara will continue to provide leadership. Efficient modern agriculture requires considerable agronomic knowledge. Yara’s plant nutrition advisory service is provided via dedicated teams of agronomists who create optimal crop-specific nutrition programs. It is backed by expert fertilizer management systems such as N-Tester, N-Sensor and Yara Plan. Traditionally, Yara’s efforts have been aimed at maximizing yield and minimizing ecological impact; now Yara also advises growers on how to reduce their GHG emissions from crop fertilization. Nitrate-based fertilizers and complex fertilizers lose very little nitrogen, while nitrate fertilizers like calcium nitrate have no ammonia emissions. Yara also has extensive industrial knowledge connected to the production of ammonia, and has implemented best-practice solutions regarding energy efficiency and emissions reduction, including its award-winning nitrous oxide catalyst.

Through its core business, Yara can help meet the global climate challenge. The company can offer industry expertise in the production of mineral fertilizers, continue its development of abatement technologies and reduction of its own emissions, and offer agronomic expertise in the appropriate application of fertilizers, to gain optimum yields within the scope of sustainable agriculture.