Healthy plant, healthy planet: how to cut ammonia emissions in Europe

Clean air means a thriving ecosystem and enhanced biodiversity, leading to stronger crops and sustainable food production for the Earth’s growing population. It is through fertilizer that farmers nourish plants and the soil in order to feed the planet. But this should not happen at the expense of clean air and healthy soil. Yara is committed, through sustainable agriculture practices, to help achieve cleaner air and soil leading to healthy plants, people and planet.

Ammonia emissions: polluting our planet

Ammonia emissions contaminate the atmosphere and pollute the planet. It represents a serious threat to the environment and to human health. Whilst not the most significant source of ammonia emissions, the wrong kind of fertilizer does have a negative impact on biodiversity and on the ecosystem. This, in turn, impacts not only the environment but also human health; by combining with other air pollutants, forming secondary particulate matter, ammonia contributes to respiratory diseases.

Towards cleaner air

There is an imperative to act now to make air cleaner for us to breathe and to reduce the negative impact that ammonia emissions have on human health. The economic argument speaks for itself:

Air pollution linked to ammonia emissions costs at least 6 billion euros per year.

Yara believes, therefore, that reducing ammonia emissions is win-win: too much ammonia in the air is toxic – for plants, planet and people.

The problem is easy to solve:

A simple switch

in the kind of fertilizer we use to nourish crops

could make a huge difference.

10%

of ammonia emissions in Europe can be eliminated right now

by switching from urea based fertilizers to nitrate-based fertilizers.

Precision farming

small changes in the way our food is cultivated

would reduce ammonia emissions and lead to higher yields and more sustainable farming.

The Yara solution: protecting our environment & health

Protecting the environment is a priority for Yara, which promotes cutting edge farming practices and standards. That is why Yara urges the EU and member states to:

Prioritise less pollutant nitrate-based fertilizers over UREA ones and to support farmers to do so.
Promote the adoption of responsible, modern farming techniques and technology – known as precision farming – which lead to reduced emissions and higher yields.

Now is the time to take action in order to ensure that we have clean air to breathe and soil free from pollution, leading to healthier plants and a healthier planet for all of us.

Watch the video

Find out more about the science behind ammonia emissions from fertilizer and how to cut them back in our video.