German CO2 in 2009 lowest since 1990: expert

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) last year fell by just under 9 percent to their lowest level since 1990, an expert said on Thursday, citing declines in industrial activity due to the economic crisis.

Europe's biggest economy cut man-made CO2 emissions, which contribute to global warming, to 760 million tons in 2009, down 74 million from 2008, the biggest year-on-year fall since 1991, said Hans-Joachim Ziesing, who compiles the data annually.

"This is on the basis of energy usage and macroeconomic data and barring anything major in December...I have a good feeling about this calculation," he said.

"It reflects the decline in economic activity rather than weather, inventory or policy factors and in my opinion shows there must not be any let-up in climate efforts," he said.

The figures are relevant as official emissions data from state environment agency UBA and the CO2 emissions registry DEHSt will only be made available in three months' time.

There are no private sector estimates going and the official statistics have to be blessed by the environment ministry.

Ziesing developed a methodology as former head of energy at the DIW research institute and maintains positions as climate advisor to the federal and the Berlin city governments.

Within the 2009 total, he saw CO2 emissions generated by the energy industries dropping by 7.7 percent and those from industrial processes by nearly a fifth year-on-year, he said.

Carbon-intensive industries such as steel, chemicals and cement have reported decreases in production by nearly 32 percent, roughly 10 percent and 8 percent respectively, which also led to lower power and gas sales, Ziesing said.

"It is dramatic when you see GDP fall by 5 percent and it may be years before exports are back to normal," he said, referring to sliding annual German GDP in 2009.

The CO2 savings came because steel works and generation plants especially cut the burning of coal, a heavy pollutant.

The Kyoto protocol obliges Germany to achieve a 21 percent annual cut in CO2 equivalents over the base year 1990 on average through the 2008-2012 period, with 2009 clearly exceeding this.

"But it would be wrong to sit back and relax. Despite more renewables and despite more energy savings, real curbs in carbon efficiency still lag behind national targets," he said.

"There will be a recovery sooner or later, and what EU countries do or don't do on CO2 has highly symbolic character."

(Reporting by Vera Eckert; Editing by Keiron Henderson)