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Nitrogen management during decarbonization

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment volume 5, pages 717–731 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Decarbonization is crucial to combat climate change. However, some decarbonization strategies could profoundly impact the nitrogen cycle. In this Review, we explore the nitrogen requirements of five major decarbonization strategies to reveal the complex interconnections between the carbon and nitrogen cycles and identify opportunities to enhance their mutually sustainable management. Some decarbonization strategies require substantial new nitrogen production, potentially leading to increased nutrient pollution and exacerbation of eutrophication in aquatic systems. For example, the strategy of substituting 44% of fossil fuels used in marine shipping with ammonia-based fuels could reduce CO2 emissions by up to 0.38 Gt CO2-eq yr−1 but would require a corresponding increase in new nitrogen synthesis of 212 Tg N yr−1. Similarly, using biofuels to achieve 0.7 ± 0.3 Gt CO2-eq yr−1 mitigation would require new nitrogen inputs to croplands of 21–42 Tg N yr−1. To avoid increasing nitrogen losses and exacerbating eutrophication, decarbonization efforts should be designed to provide carbon–nitrogen co-benefits. Reducing the use of carbon-intensive synthetic nitrogen fertilizer is one example that can simultaneously reduce both nitrogen inputs by 14 Tg N yr−1 and CO2 emissions by 0.04 (0.03–0.06) Gt CO2-eq yr−1. Future research should guide decarbonization efforts to mitigate eutrophication and enhance nitrogen use efficiency in agriculture, food and energy systems.

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Fig. 1: Historical trends of CO2 emissions and nitrogen (N) inputs from human activities.
Fig. 2: Interconnections and human perturbations of the carbon and nitrogen cycle.
Fig. 3: Decarbonization strategies (DS) and their impact on nitrogen and carbon cycling.
Fig. 4: The food–feed–fuel triangle.
Fig. 5: CO2 mitigation potential of each decarbonization strategy and the impact on N inputs per kg CO2 reduction.

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Data availability

All data are available in the article and its Supplementary information. The data and associated R scripts for Fig. 1 are openly available in Zenodo at https://zenodo.org/records/11097254 (ref. 176). The data for Fig. 5 is available in Supplementary Table 1.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the National Natural Science Foundation (OISE-2330502, CNS-1739823, CBET-2047165 and CBET-2025826) and the Belmont Forum. The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of the US Environmental Protection Agency.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Appalachian Laboratory, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Frostburg, MD, USA

    Xin Zhang, Jun Suk Byun, Yanyu Wang & Eric A. Davidson

  2. Global Nitrogen Innovation Center for Clean Energy and the Environment, Frostburg, MD, USA

    Xin Zhang & Eric A. Davidson

  3. Office of Research and Development, Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment, US Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, USA

    Robert Sabo

  4. Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Science, Stanford, CA, USA

    Lorenzo Rosa

  5. Joint Global Change Research Institute, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, College Park, MD, USA

    Hassan Niazi & Page Kyle

  6. Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Hassan Niazi

  7. State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China

    Xiaoyuan Yan

  8. College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Baojing Gu

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  1. Xin Zhang
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Contributions

X.Z. conceptualized the article. All authors contributed to the review of five decarbonization strategies (DS), with L.R. leading DS1, R.S. and W.Y. leading DS2, P.K. and H.N. leading DS3, E.A.D. leading DS4, and X.Z. leading DS5. X.Z., J.S.B. and W.Y. led the data synthesis and visualization. H.N. and E.A.D. led the development of Fig. 2 and its caption. All authors reviewed, revised and approved the final version of the draft.

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Correspondence to Xin Zhang.

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Related links

International Energy Agency: https://www.iea.org/reports/global-ev-outlook-2023

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: https://gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/data.html

Nutrien: https://www.nutrien.com/investors/news-releases/2022-nutrien-announces-intention-build-worlds-largest-clean-ammonia

Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil: https://rspo.org/

The Cool Down: https://www.thecooldown.com/green-tech/clean-ammonia-container-ship-norway/

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs: https://sdgs.un.org/partnerships/4-1000-initiative-and-its-implementation

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change: https://unfccc.int/topics/land-use/workstreams/reddplus

US Department of Agriculture: https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2019/october/dried-distillers-grains-ddgs-have-emerged-as-a-key-ethanol-coproduct/

US Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service: https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/u-s-bioenergy-statistics/

US Department of Energy: https://afdc.energy.gov/fuels/properties

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Zhang, X., Sabo, R., Rosa, L. et al. Nitrogen management during decarbonization. Nat Rev Earth Environ 5, 717–731 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-024-00586-2

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