Livestock emissions and crop residue emissions linked, even after accounting for country size.
Comparing Emission Totals - Direct emissions (N2O) - Crop Residues with Emissions from livestock — Emissions (N2O) across 169 countries, 2023–2050.
- Rank correlation
- +0.87
- Holding size constant
- +0.40
- Countries compared
- 169
- Period
- 2023–2050
What might link these
Both indicators relate to agricultural practices. Livestock produce N2O through digestion and manure, while crop residue management can also release N2O. The correlation suggests that countries with significant livestock emissions may also have practices leading to substantial N2O from crop residues.
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. While related to agriculture, this correlation doesn't isolate the direct drivers of crop residue emissions or rule out other agricultural or environmental factors acting as confounders.
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.