# China’s greenhouse gas emissions for cropping systems from 1978–2016

## TL;DR

This paper provides a detailed analysis of greenhouse gas emissions from Chinese crop farming between 1978 and 2016 to support future climate strategies.

## Contribution

The study offers a comprehensive, spatially-precise dataset of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions in China over 38 years.

## Key findings

- Agricultural activities like rice cultivation and fertilizer production significantly contribute to emissions.
- The dataset enables spatial and temporal analysis for designing mitigation strategies in China.
- Emissions data spans 1978–2016 at the provincial level, covering multiple crop-related activities.

## Abstract

China has committed to reaching carbon neutrality by 2060, which will require a drastic cut in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from all sectors, including those from agricultural activities. A comprehensive, long-term, and spatially-precise profile of agricultural GHG emissions can help to accurately understand drivers of historical emissions and their implications for future mitigation. This study constructs province-level agricultural GHG emissions in China from 1978 to 2016. It considers primary and secondary emissions from a full range of agricultural activities related to crop farming, including crop residue open burning, rice cultivation, cropland change, cropland emissions, machinery use, nitrogen fertilizer production, and pesticide production. Annual or interpolated activity data from official sources and the latest emission factors available for China were adopted in this study. The data can be used in spatial and temporal analysis of emissions from cropping systems as well as the design of mitigation strategy in China.

Measurement(s)greenhouse gasTechnology Type(s)digital curation • computational modeling techniqueFactor Type(s)date • provinceSample Characteristic - Environmentcultivated environment • climate changeSample Characteristic - LocationChina

Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data: 10.6084/m9.figshare.14753940