A Climate for Change

Human Development Report - Croatia 2008 Reducing emissions in Croatia – the Costs of Mitigation^197

To date, carbon losses from agricultural soils have not
been reported in the national GHG inventories. How-
ever, these are substantial and in the EU-15 have been
estimated at 10-20 million tonnes of CO 2 e per year,
adding 4-8% to GHG emissions in the EU-15.^37

12.3.2. GHG emissions from Croatian

agriculture

In 2006, the Croatian agricultural sector emitted 3.5
million tonnes of CO 2 e – 11.4% of the country’s an-
thropogenic GHG emissions in that year.^38 In the pe-
riod 2001-05, livestock farming was responsible for a
little over half of the direct GHG emissions from ag-
riculture, while crop production produced the rest.^39
Most methane is produced from enteric fermentation
(of which cattle produce the most – see Figure 12-5).
The vast majority of nitrous oxide emissions resulted
from current soil and manure management practices.

The biggest single source of GHGs in agriculture was

from fertilisers applied to agricultural land, followed

by the enteric fermentation from cattle, crops (nitro-

gen-fixing crops, crop residues and related nitrogen

leaching), and manure management (See Figure 12-6

for all of the categories). Besides the emissions pre-

sented in Figure 12-6, two additional sources of GHGs

result from agriculture: the burning of residues and

carbon losses from agricultural soils. Burning agricul-

tural residues is prohibited in Croatia and is thus not

included in the national GHG inventory.^40 While some

farmers still practise this, these emissions have been

estimated at about 1000 tonnes of CO 2 e per year – a

very small amount. The UNFCCC does not require car-

bon losses from agricultural soils to be reported in the

national GHG inventories. These have been estimated

at 1.179 million tonnes per year in Croatia, adding an

additional 35% to emissions from farming.^41

Figure 12-5: GHG emissions by gas and management/

natural process.

0

20

40

60

80

100

%

Manure management

Enteric fermentation

Soil management

CH 4

82

18

N 2 O

92

8

CO 2 e

62

27

11

Figure 12-6: GHG emissions by source.

Enteric ferm.

cattle 23%

Crops

16%

Grazing 3%

Others 7%

Enteric ferm.

others 3% Manure from

soil 7%

Manure

mngm. 3%

Fertilisers

30%

Source: modified after Znaor 2008. Source: modified after Znaor 2008.