Food security and agriculture face major challenges of climate change in terms of expected negative impacts on productivity and the implementation of sectoral measures to mitigate global warming. Agriculture is one of the most exposed industries to climate changes and should set an example on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. But emissions from agriculture have almost doubled in the last 50 years, without any reducing steps the emissions will increase for 30 % by 2050. The FAOSTAT emissions database represents the most comprehensive knowledge base on GHG emissions from agriculture. It is being updated annually and offers a global reference point on emissions and mitigation options in the sector. Emissions are measured in CO2 equivalent (eq. CO2), which represents the amount of one specific GHG, measured in tons of CO2, that has the same global warming potential. The main source of GHG in agriculture is livestock production, because of enteric fermentation (40 % of all agriculture emissions) and manure storage (20 %), which causes a lot of methane emissions. Methane has 23x higher global warming potential than CO2. Other very problematic GHG is nitrous oxide with 310x higher global warming potential than CO2. N2O emissions come from: manure storage, mineral fertilization, grazing, biomass burning, decay of crop leftovers, biological nitrogen fixation and histosol cultivation. Global GHG emissions from agriculture, forestry and other land use in 2010 amounted 1010 t eq. CO2, and removal was 210 t eq. CO2. Asia contribute the most to global GHG emissions (44 %), Americas (25 %), Africa (15 %), Europe (12 %) and Oceania (4 %). Knowledge of the contribution of agriculture to GHG emissions is the basis for reducing emissions, thus the impact of agriculture on climate change and for adapting to changed climate.
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