In 2002, the German agricultural sector contributed 8.7 % of the total national green house gas emissions. The main sources were animal digestion, manure management and agricultural soils. From the technical point of view, the manure management has the biggest potential of green house gas reduction by using biogas technology. Thereby methane emission from manure, which otherwise had been emitted into the atmosphere, can be recaptured and used to substitute fossil fuels. Regarding the whole output of manure from cattle and swine in Germany, the emission reduction is 56 Mio. t CO2-equivalent. This amount is equivalent to 4.5% of the emissions in 1990/95 for the Kyoto protocol. Regarding the biomass potential which is technically feasible at the moment, the reduction potential growth to 276 Mio. t CO2-equivalent or 22% of emissions. This is 27.5 times more than the reduction commitment of the German industry for EU-emissions trading in the period from 2005-2012.
