FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A warm winter cut demand for heating oil and gas sending German carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2007 down by 2.7 percent to almost 857 million tons, the federal environment agency UBA said on Monday. But it warned that the fall in pollution was no reason to lower the guard against climate-changing CO2 pollution.
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A warm winter cut demand for heating oil and gas sending German carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2007 down by 2.7 percent to almost 857 million tons, the federal environment agency UBA said on Monday.
But it warned that the fall in pollution was no reason to lower the guard against climate-changing CO2 pollution.
"The reasons for the lower CO2 emissions were lower demand for oil and gas due to the strong rise in prices for fossil fuels as well as above-average temperatures (which curbed heating demand)," said UBA president Andreas Troge.
"These were one-off effects and no reason to reduce climate protection efforts," he added.
!ADVERTISEMENT!Germany is the EU's biggest emitter of six heat-trapping greenhouse gases. CO2 is the most prevalent, accounting for 87 percent of the country's harmful emissions.
The total for the six dropped by 2.4 percent year-on-year to 981.3 million tons of CO2 equivalents, said UBA. It said Germany had lowered their emissions by a fifth compared to levels in 1990, to a 20.4 percent drop.
This brings Germany close to meeting its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol, which require a 21 percent cut by 2012.
The UBA said Germany should press ahead with a package of measures to save energy and use cleaner fuels.
Germany aims by 2020 to lower greenhouse gases emissions by 40 percent over 1990 levels.
Final 2007 figures for CO2 will be available in mid-2008 and final greenhouse gases numbers for 2007 in early 2009, UBA said.
(Reporting by Vera Eckert; editing by James Jukwey)
