Abstract
Resumption of the increase in atmospheric methane (CH 4 ) concentrations since 2007 is of global concern and may partly have resulted from emissions from rice cultivation. Estimates of CH 4 emissions from rice fields and abatement potential are essential to assess the contribution of improved rice management in achieving the targets of the Global Methane Pledge agreed upon by over 100 countries at COP26. However, the contribution of CH 4 emissions from rice fields to the resumed CH 4 growth and the global abatement potential remains unclear. In this study, we estimated the global CH 4 emissions from rice fields to be 27±6 Tg CH 4 yr -1 in the recent decade (2008-2017) based on the 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories. The trend of CH 4 emissions from rice cultivation showed an increase followed by no significant change and then, a stabilization over 1990-2020. Consequently, the contribution of CH 4 emissions from rice fields to the renewed increase in atmospheric CH 4 concentrations since 2007 was minor. We summarized the existing low-cost measures and showed that improved water and straw management could reduce one-third of global CH 4 emissions from rice fields. Straw returned as biochar could reduce CH 4 emissions by 12 Tg CH 4 yr -1 , equivalent to 10% of the total reduction of all anthropogenic emissions. We conclude that other sectors than rice cultivation must have contributed to the renewed increase in atmospheric CH 4 concentrations, and that optimizing multiple mitigation measures in rice fields could contribute significantly to the abatement goal outlined in the Global Methane Pledge.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 2776-2789 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Global Change Biology |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| Early online date | 8 Feb 2023 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - May 2023 |
Bibliographical note
This work was supported by the funding from the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2022YFD2300300), the Jiangsu Provincial Special Project for Carbon Peak Carbon Neutrality Science and Technology Innovation (BE2022423, BE2022308), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42007072, 42177285), and the Startup Foundation for Introducing Talent of Nanjing Agricultural University (030/804028).Data Availability Statement
The data that support the findings of this study are available in the corresponding public domains. Data on global rice cultivation area, yield, and CH4 emissions from rice cultivation were available from the UN FAO statistical database website (https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data). The other three estimates of CH4 emissions from global rice cultivation were accessed from the corresponding websites (EDGAR 6.0 at https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data, US EPA database at https://www.epa.gov/global-mitigation-non-co2-greenhouse-gases/global-non-co2-ghg-emissions-1990-2030, and GAINS model v6.0 at https://previous.iiasa.ac.at/web/home/research/researchPrograms/air/Global_emissions.html). Data on future rice cultivation area were obtained from https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/agriculture-and-food/oecd-fao-agricultural-outlook-2021-2030_19428846-en. The data that support the findings of abatement potential of biochar are openly available in figshare at 10.6084/m9.figshare.22012355.v1.Keywords
- rice production
- GHG inventory
- mitigation potential
- straw management
- global warming
- climate-smart practice
