Crop emissions linked to residue emissions
Comparing Emission Totals - Direct emissions (N2O) - Crop Residues with Emissions from crops — Emissions (CH4) across 157 countries, 1980–2050.
- Rank correlation
- +0.83
- Holding size constant
- +0.54
- Countries compared
- 157
- Period
- 1980–2050
What might link these
The relationship between emissions from crops and crop residues might be due to agricultural practices. A careful reader should consider that fertiliser use could be a confounder. The connection could reflect broader farming methods.
Why this is not proof of anything
This is a correlation across countries, not an experiment. It cannot show that either indicator causes the other, and both may simply follow a third thing. This correlation might mislead because it doesn't account for other factors like fertiliser application or soil management.
The second figure above repeats the measurement with national population and income held constant. It is the more conservative number: a relationship that largely disappears there was mostly telling you that larger, richer countries have more of most things.
How this was measured
Both indicators were ranked across every country reporting each, and the two rankings compared — ranks rather than raw values, because a handful of very large countries can otherwise manufacture a relationship on their own. The calculation is arithmetic over figures already published on this site; the commentary above is drafted from the two indicator names and the resulting coefficients.