Greenhouse gas emissions from different plant production system in China

Abstract For the environmental efficiency assessment of the plant nursery production system, the total CO2 eq emissions of 18 nurseries in China was calculated using the LCA “from cradle to gate” approach. The analysis revealed that the GHG emissions of potted plant production were higher than those of field-grown nurseries. The CO2 eq emissions were variable between 0.31 and 2.19 Mg ha−1 year−1 for field-grown nurseries, while the lowest and the highest emissions were 4.09 and 6.06 Mg ha−1 year−1, respectively, for potted plant nurseries. In 2015, the total CO2 eq emissions of the nursery production industry in China were approximately 1.59 Mt, which consisted of 1.07 Mt from field-grown nurseries and 0.52 Mt from pot-grown plant nurseries. In China, nursery production industry carbon emissions were 0.19% of the national agriculture emissions. The comparison showed that the GHG emissions of the nursery plant system have significant differences depending on region, production method, plant species and economic development level.