Green Ammonia Governance Principles: Towards responsible use across food, energy, and transport systems

Prepared by Morten Graversgaard and Joshua McBee

Green ammonia, produced by using renewable energy and water to make hydrogen and combining it with nitrogen from the atmosphere, represents the latest chapter in the century-long story of human disruption of the nitrogen cycle. The invention of the Haber–Bosch process in the early twentieth century transformed global agriculture and industrial capacity (Fowler et al. 2013; Erisman et al. 2013), but it also helped create an uneven nitrogen system: fertilizer overuse and water pollution in some regions, insufficient and unequal access to fertilizers and yield benefits in others, and persistent governance challenges in balancing food security with environmental protection (De Vries et al. 2013; Bonilla-Cedrez et al. 2021; Peñuelas et al. 2023).

Today, green ammonia is emerging as a potential solution across several sectors: as a pathway to decarbonize fertilizer production, a low-carbon fuel for long-haul shipping, and an energy carrier for hydrogen, positioning it as simultaneously a climate, agricultural, and energy technology. Consequently, production has the potential to grow tremendously in the coming years. At present, however, governance is both underdeveloped and fragmented across sectoral frameworks for fertilizer, energy, shipping, safety, and environmental protection. With ammonia now expanding across these domains, growth at this pace and scale raises several concerns.

Three Concerns About Expansion of Green Ammonia Production and Use

One concern is that, without tight control of nitrogen emissions, a large-scale ammonia economy could offset much of its climate benefit and further disrupt the global nitrogen cycle. One recent analysis (Bertagni et al., 2023) found that, in a hypothetical scenario in which the ammonia economy grows to 30 EJ y⁻¹ and 5% of the nitrogen is lost to the environment, additions of reactive nitrogen to the environment could rise to ≈ 65 Mt N y⁻¹—equivalent to roughly half of today’s global fertilizer usage. In addition, depending on the efficiency of combustion, nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions from use of ammonia as a shipping fuel could make ammonia’s climate footprint range anywhere between that of renewables and coal (Bertagni et al. 2023; cf. Wolfram et al. 2022). Similarly, modeling of ammonia as a marine fuel shows climate advantages of 68–80% over fossil fuel under minimal N₂O leakage, whereas moderate leakage as N₂O can erase the climate mitigation gains from avoiding fossil fuel combustion (Esquivel-Elizondo et al. 2025; cf. Esquivel-Elizondo et al. 2026). The climate benefits of green ammonia thus depend on real-world control of N₂O, NOₓ, and ammonia slip.

A second concern is that a significant increase in non-agricultural ammonia demand could interact with fertilizer markets, infrastructure, and nitrogen management systems in complex and uncertain ways. Green ammonia for shipping or hydrogen transport may not directly compete with existing fertilizer supply, particularly where markets are segmented by price, certification requirements, infrastructure, contracts, production method, or policy incentives, and where new production capacity is largely additional rather than substitutive. However, transition dynamics—such as pressure on transport, storage, and distribution capacity, or policy-driven shifts away from fossil-based ammonia production—could still affect fertilizer affordability or availability in some regions and during certain transition periods.

Finally, a significant expansion of decentralized or off-grid green ammonia production involves both opportunities and risks. One set of possibilities stems from the potential impact of greater local availability and flexibility on fertilizer application practices. By insulating fertilizer production from volatile global markets, decentralized production has the potential to significantly improve price stability and improve food security. In addition, in nitrogen-deficient regions, decentralized production could support responsible increases in fertilizer use and help close yield gaps. More flexible local production could also enable more timely or split fertilizer applications that improve nitrogen use efficiency. In regions already experiencing over-application, however, it could increase the risk of nitrogen losses if not accompanied by appropriate agronomic advice and safeguards. Decentralized or off-grid ammonia production may also create safety, permitting, monitoring, and security challenges, particularly where production is difficult to regulate or track.

Thus, while the potential benefits of green ammonia are substantial, so are the risks. Its climate and sustainability benefits depend on controlling direct and indirect N₂O emissions; minimizing NH₃ and NOₓ losses across the value chain, from energy production and ammonia synthesis to transport, storage, and end use; and preventing new burdens across food, energy, transport, and environmental systems. Moreover, if appropriate safeguards are not put in place, a significant expansion of ammonia production and use could have adverse impacts on fertilizer access, food security, safety, and equity. Without guiding principles and coordinated governance approaches, this emerging field could repeat the inequities and unintended environmental costs of past nitrogen transitions.

Principles for Ammonia Governance

To steer this transition toward sustainability and equity, we propose the six principles below. To be clear, these principles are intended to apply to all forms of ammonia, not just green ammonia. Though it does present unique opportunities and risks and so, in certain cases, may require governance measures not needed for other forms of ammonia, green ammonia should not be subjected to stricter scrutiny or regulation than other forms simply on account of its method of production.

  1. Food security, fertilizer access, and responsible fertilizer use: Ammonia governance should encourage responsible use of fertilizer and aim to prevent increases in pollution while safeguarding food security and supporting fertilizer access and affordability, particularly in import-dependent regions vulnerable to price shocks, supply-chain disruption, and infrastructure bottlenecks. To do so, policy must be appropriately sensitive and responsive to local conditions, supporting responsible increases in nitrogen use in areas where soils are nitrogen-deficient and yields are constrained while preventing inefficient or excessive application in areas where nitrogen overuse already contributes to pollution.

  2. Equitable distribution of ammonia technology and benefits: Technological and economic gains from ammonia should reach both industrial and agricultural users worldwide, rather than being concentrated among high-income countries, energy-exporting regions, or large corporate actors. For green ammonia to become useful for small-holder farmers, technologies and fertilizer products must be developed in forms that are safe, affordable, and practically usable across different farming systems (Garvey et al., 2025). This is particularly important because anhydrous ammonia, whether green or fossil-derived, requires specialized equipment and is currently used mainly by larger farms in a limited number of high-income countries (Davidson and Raghuram, 2026).

  3. Environmental safeguards and avoid burden-shifting: Ammonia governance should include robust environmental safeguards and aim to ensure that decarbonization in one sector does not shift environmental or social burdens to other regions, ecosystems, or communities. To do so, governance frameworks should require full life-cycle nitrogen accounting covering production, transport, storage, conversion, and end use and including both direct and indirect emissions. In addition, policies should require strict controls on NH₃, NOₓ, and N₂O emissions using relevant sector-specific measures. In shipping, such measures include complete combustion, leakage prevention, boil-off gas management, continuous emissions monitoring, and management of ammonia-containing effluent. In agriculture, use of green ammonia should be integrated into nitrogen-management plans, nutrient use efficiency strategies, and advisory systems. Finally, policy frameworks should anticipate and address water use and local ecosystem impacts where ammonia production may compete with agricultural, urban, or ecological water and land needs. 

  4. Transparency, monitoring, and accountability: To facilitate monitoring and ensure accountability, ammonia governance should be open and transparent. Wherever possible, regulators should track emissions and impacts and enforce performance standards using open data, independent verification, and continuous monitoring (of, for instance, the impacts of emissions of reactive nitrogen from shipping on marine ecosystems). Policy frameworks and certification schemes should avoid narrow accounting boundaries that overstate climate benefits while excluding reactive nitrogen emissions or indirect environmental impacts. Nations should cooperate through bodies such as the IMO, FAO, and UNEP to track emissions, harmonize performance standards, and support accountability across the value chain.

  5. Safety and security risk management: Ammonia governance should address safety and security risks alongside climate and environmental goals, particularly for decentralized or off-grid production, transport, storage, and port infrastructure. Among other strategies, regulatory systems should do so through appropriate permitting, emergency-response planning, monitoring, and oversight. 

  6. Adaptive governance: Because the impacts of significantly increased use of ammonia are characterized by significant uncertainty, governance should be flexible enough to adapt to new information, and policies should be updated as new evidence emerges on emissions, fertilizer markets, food security, technology performance, and social impacts.

Embedding these principles early in policy, investment, and trade frameworks can help ensure that green ammonia delivers genuine climate and food-system benefits, rather than repeat past nitrogen governance failures.

Practical Guidance for Stakeholders

Below we offer practical guidance for key stakeholders:

  • Vessel owners and operators: Vessel owners and operators should minimize ammonia leakage; ensure complete combustion; install and maintain boil-off gas (BOG) capture systems; meet NOₓ emission standards equivalent to IMO Tier limits; apply strict controls on N₂O emissions; utilize after-treatment devices as necessary and monitor possible NOₓ/N₂O trade-offs; implement continuous emissions monitoring; and prevent harmful discharge of ammonia-containing waste streams and effluent to the marine environment.

  • Ports and terminals: Ports and terminals should require boil-off gas (BOG) recapture or reuse, implement leak detection and repair (LDAR) programs and spill-response plans, disclose ammonia related emissions and safety risks, and condition port access on compliance with safety and emissions standards. In addition, ports should invest in the infrastructure necessary to receive ammonia effluent retained onboard ships.

  • National and subnational governments: Governments should develop and update national action plans for nitrogen management to reflect expanded and potentially distributed ammonia production. They should safeguard fertilizer affordability and availability where food security is vulnerable, while supporting best management practices that improve nitrogen use efficiency. Governments should set limits on N₂O and NOₓ emissions from engines and industrial facilities, regulate decentralized production through appropriate permitting and safety rules, and align sustainability criteria with the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) or similar schemes where relevant. 

  • International bodies (including the IMO, FAO, UNEP, and partners): International bodies should develop harmonized N₂O, NOₓ, and NH₃ performance and monitoring rules; enable certification and data sharing across the value chain; enable certification and cross-border data sharing; promote coordination between energy and agriculture governance. This coordination is needed to prevent unintended cross-sectoral impacts on fertilizer access, nitrogen management, food security, and marine and terrestrial ecosystems.

  • Fertilizer producers and retailers: Fertilizer producers and retailers should verify supply-chain emissions and monitor and prevent leaks of both ammonia and hydrogen. In addition, they should ensure renewable energy used for production is genuinely additional and does not detract from decarbonization elsewhere. They should support farmer access to precision-nitrogen tools and advisory services and avoid marketing or price practices that encourage inefficient nitrogen use. They should also help develop fertilizer products derived from green ammonia that can be safely, affordably, and widely adopted across different farming systems. In low-income and nitrogen-deficient regions, these efforts should include supporting access to fertilizers that can help close yield gaps while maintaining high nitrogen use efficiency. 

  • Researchers and research organizations: Researchers and research organizations should develop independent, low-cost methods to measure NH₃, NOₓ, and N₂O emissions across the full green ammonia life cycle, from production to transport, combustion, and agricultural application. They should also establish transparent methods for assessing climate and nitrogen benefits, evaluate impacts on ocean and terrestrial ecosystems, and develop practical guidelines for efficient fertilizer use with products derived from green ammonia plants.

Endorsing Organizations in collaboration with iN-Net

References

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Bonilla-Cedrez, C., Chamberlin, J., & Hijmans, R. J. (2021). Fertilizer and grain prices constrain food production in sub-Saharan Africa. Nature Food, 2(10), 766–772. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00370-1

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