Aiming for just enough Nitrogen (and not too much!)

Professor Mark Sutton from CEH is currently in Kampala, Uganda at the 6th International Nitrogen Conference, where he has joined other scientists, agriculturalists, environmentalists, industrialists, economists and policy-makers to discuss issues linked to nitrogen management, including food security, human health, agriculture and the water cycle. On Friday (22 November), it is planned that the Conference will finalize and announce the Kampala Declaration on global nitrogen management.

Prof Sutton chairs the International Nitrogen Initiative (INI) which has organised the conference with the African Nitrogen Centre, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and Makerere University College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Also attending the conference are Prof Sutton's CEH colleagues Prof Nancy Dise and Dr Ute Skiba, each of whom are speaking at the event.

The conference, which runs from 18-22 November 2013, has the tagline "Let us aim for Just Enough N: Perspectives on how to get there for 'too much' and 'too little' regions".

Prof Sutton is chairing a session on Global and Regional Assessment and making a keynote speech "Global Nitrogen Assessment: From Our Nutrient World to the International Nitrogen Management System (INMS)". Our Nutrient World is the UNEP publication edited by Prof Sutton which was published by CEH earlier this year. It is planned that Prof Sutton will also moderate the finalization of the Kampala Declaration on Friday.

The Kampala meeting is believed to be the world's first 'Nitrogen Neutral' conference, where delegates are offered the opportunity to contribute offsetting their nitrogen footprint associated with the conference.  At the same time, the delegates have adopted a demitarian approach - reducing their consumption of meat by half compared with the usual menu at the conference venue, the Speke Resort Hotel - as a means of reducing their own nitrogen footprint.

A key issue being discussed at the meeting is how to get more Nitrogen into Africa, with the main debate being that of fertiliser usage versus biological nitrogen fixation, and how to get the best from both aspects.

This is the sixth international conference to take place after previous events in the Netherlands, USA, China, Brazil and India. The common objective of these conferences is the design of more productive, economic and sustainable food and energy production systems to meet the challenges of the growing global population whilst minimising the cascade of environmental effects posed by nitrogen. Air pollution, water pollution, biodiversity and climate change are all impacted through "too much" nitrogen in the environment, but it is an essential part of the story to ensuring global good security.

The International Nitrogen Initiative is a global effort to optimize nitrogen's beneficial role in sustainable food production and to minimize nitrogen's negative effects on human health and the environment.

Additional information

Prof Nancy Dise is speaking on "Impacts of nitrogen deposition on the ecology and biogeochemistry of European peat bogs: The PEATBOG Project" in a session on N and ecosystem health.

Dr Ute Skiba is speaking on "Comparison of N, C and GHG budgets from European forests, wetlands and agricultural land" in a session on N emissions and climate change.

Related links

Staff page of Prof Mark Sutton

Updated 22 November 2013

Prof Mark Sutton was on the Steering Committee and Editorial Team, and was Part 2 Coordinator, of the new UNEP Synthesis Report, Drawing Down N₂O to Protect Climate and the Ozone Layer, which was published on Thursday 21 November 2013, coinciding with the COP19 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Warsaw. Additionally, Dr Ute Skiba from CEH was a lead author on the new report, which aims to inform policymakers and stakeholders about the impacts of nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions on the climate and ozone layer. More details can be found from the UNEP press release.

Cleaner air for all - searching for solutions to air pollution at Green Week 2013

Air quality is the theme of this year’s Green Week event in Brussels, which is described as Europe’s largest environment conference, and CEH expertise will be on hand to lead and join in with some of the discussions. Scientists from Europe and further afield will join EU policymakers, non-governmental organisations, business and industry at the event, which takes place from today, Tuesday June 4 until Friday June 7 under the banner “Cleaner air for all”.

The 3000+ expected participants will search for solutions to air pollution, like how to safeguard air quality against the backdrop of rising industrial and energy production, the rise in road traffic and urbanisation, the burning of fossil fuels and climate change.

Despite science-based evidence leading to progress in recent years, air quality standards are still widely exceeded in the EU’s most densely populated areas, especially from pollutants such as particulate matter, ground-level ozone and nitrogen dioxide. The conference is an opportunity for scientists from several key research projects, including those with CEH involvement such as ACCENT Plus, ICP Vegetation and ECLAIRE, to present their latest relevant findings.

Air quality is a broad issue that obviously affects us all, whether as a direct threat to health through poor air quality contributing to conditions such as asthma, cancer, respiratory diseases, or by having negative impacts on changes in ecosystems and biodiversity, and there are a huge range of research strands that go towards securing better air quality.  One such area is climate change research. In the run-up to Green Week 2013, the European Commission’s Directorate General Research and Innovation has emphasised that although air quality and climate change have traditionally been viewed separately, climate change has a significant impact on the chemical composition of the atmosphere and hence on the level of air pollution. Thus, breaking with the traditional view, projects from DG Research and Innovation are putting together their main findings addressing the interaction between air pollution, climate change and the impact on human health.

DG Research and Innovation has organised three sessions at Green Week which highlight such findings, building upon the experiences of the EU research community through the Seventh Framework Programme. CEH staff are involved in two of the sessions.

Prof Mark Sutton of CEH, who worked on the ECLAIRE project, is among those speaking in a session on Thursday entitled “Science & evidence-based environmental policymaking – the science input to the thematic strategic review”. The session, which is moderated by another CEH scientist, Prof David Fowler, will be devoted to illustrating the main research findings relevant for the design and implementation of the EU’s air quality policies. The presentations will be addressed to a broad audience and will therefore focus on those aspects closer to the daily life of the citizen. The main focus will be on the impact of air pollution on human health, environment and climate and on the integrated assessment tools needed to design adequate policies in the EU.

Prof Fowler, who works on the ACCENT Plus project, is involved as a speaker in a second event on Thursday, when he takes part in a session entitled “Perspectives for the future – a research agenda for EU air quality”. This will focus on the main research and innovation challenges that need to be addressed in the medium term up to 2025 to better deal with the challenges of effective management of air quality and approaching the long-term objectives of EU environmental policy. As well as the scientific community, the session will include views from the European Commission services responsible for EU air policy. The challenges associated with air quality monitoring and with integrating human health, climate change and air quality are expected to be addressed.

Elsewhere at Green Week, Dr Harry Harmens of CEH, who is chair of the ICP Vegetation programme, will be speaking at a session giving a status update on research into how air pollution, reactive nitrogen in particular, is an important threat to the environment and biodiversity, and is having a significant negative impact on European ecosystems.

Prof Mark Sutton meanwhile will be speaking at a second session, exploring the relation between air quality and agriculture in the EU. With half of EU land being farmed, agriculture and environment are inextricably linked and sustainable agriculture is an EU priority.  Farming practices have a profound influence on air quality, by contributing to emission of certain air pollutants, such as ammonia, and greenhouse gases, such as methane and nitrous oxide.

Invisible pollution, real effects

Speaking about Green Week on the opening day of the event, Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik said, "Air pollution is often invisible, but its effects are very real. When air quality is poor we pay a heavy price: citizens' lives are lost, medical costs are high, and working days are lost to illness. Green Week provides an important platform where policymakers, representatives from local communities and NGOs, public authorities and businesses can exchange ideas on how improve the air we breathe – we are constantly open to suggestions on how to improve our current legislation."

Commissioner Potočnik has declared 2013 as the Year of Air and over the course of the year the Commission's current air policy is being reviewed.

With lots of research findings to keep track of, and assuming you’re not one of those lucky enough to be in Brussels, you can still follow news from Green Week through the conference website, which has a live stream from all the sessions.

Additional information

View the full Green Week 2013 programme [PDF]

Prof David Fowler is interviewed in the recent European Environment Agency publication, "Every breath we take", about air pollutants and chemical processes in our atmosphere.