Recession, oil price halve CO2 emission rise-report

* Financial crisis, pricey oil halve rise in CO2 emissions

* Developing nations now emit more than industrialised world

LONDON, June 25 - High oil prices and the impact of a global recession halved yearly rises in global greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels in 2008, the first evidence of an impact from the financial crisis, a study said on Thursday.

Also for the first time, the share of global carbon emissions from developing countries was higher than from industrialised nations, at 50.3 percent. China recently overtook the United States as the world's top carbon emitter.

The recession's effect on energy consumption and carbon emissions is seen as temporary, and some scientists fear a rebound if the credit squeeze delays investments in more costly, low-carbon sources of energy such as wind and solar power.

The rate of increase in 2009 will be lower again and absolute emissions may fall, depending on other factors such as winter temperatures, said Jos Olivier, chief scientist compiling the data for the study published by Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, using BP energy data.

Carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas blamed for climate change. Negotiators from 190 countries are trying to seal agreeement by December this year on a new global climate pact in a U.N. process to replace or extend the Kyoto Protocol.

Scientists say that annual increases in global greenhouse gas emissions must level off and start to fall by 2015-2020 to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

Thursday's data showed that global carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels and from cement production reached 31.6 billion tonnes in 2008, up 40 percent from 1990 levels and a doubling since 1970.

Emissions increased by 1.7 percent in 2008 compared with 3.3 percent in 2007. Since 2002, the average annual increase was almost 4 percent, the study said.

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