The EU bio-economy strategy aims to tackle climate change by promoting the use of more wood- and crop-based biomass. The goal is to transition towards a low-carbon and resource-efficient society that relies more on renewable resources and less on fossil fuels (Carstensen et al., 2023). Due to climate change, the growing agricultural production season in the Baltic-Nordic region is getting longer. Some examples in the review (Nainggolan et al., 2023) include the need to shift to new crops and change from spring-sown to winter-sown crops. Additionally, studies have shown that altering land allocation could effectively respond to anticipated shifts in climatic suitability for crop production in the north (Iglesias et al., 2012; Olesen and Bindi, 2002; Wiréhn, 2018; Nainggolan et al., 2023). However, increasing productivity poses a significant problem: the increased use of fertilizers, especially nitrogen (N). The productivity of many crops relies heavily on N fertilizers, with the production and usage of N contributing to about 5% of the world's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Gao and Cabrera, 2023; Kamran et al., 2023). Farmers use an average of 50-110 N kg/ha per year, and agricultural land is about 12.6 M ha in the Baltic-Nordic region, showing still high consumption of mineral N fertilizers apart from the number of indoor horticulture and vertical farms, where large amounts of N fertilizers are also used. A large part of GHG emissions is made up of transportation, as Baltic-Nordic region countries import about 50% of N fertilizers from North Africa (Egypt, Algeria) and Eastern Europe (Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine) (Agriculture and Rural Development studies and reports, 2023). In addition, the Haber-Bosch process is responsible for over 96% of the world's ammonia production (Smith et al., 2020) and relies heavily on fossil fuels such as natural gas (50%), oil (31%), and coal (19%). Due to the high energy demand of this process, it has a significant environmental impact and contributes to increasing GHG emissions. These issues demand urgent implementation of circular economy practices across all sectors, reducing carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 and aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050 (Yang et al., 2023). Identifying and prioritizing interventions that cover the entire fertilizer life cycle (Gao and Cabrera, 2023), seeking to reduce the effects of climate change. Scientists have analyzed the global flows of synthetic N fertilizers and manure and their corresponding GHG emissions at each stage of their life cycle. Research reveals that around two-thirds of fertilizer emissions occur after their use in croplands. The most effective strategy to reduce emissions is to increase nitrogen-use efficiency, and this must be coupled with the decarbonization of fertilizer production (Gao and Cabrera, 2023).
Background
References
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