Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) -- The economic slowdown will help companies to cut energy use and carbon dioxide emissions, Poland’s environment minister said as delegates from 190 nations gather in the country to discuss limits on greenhouse gases.

“I would expect that during the financial crisis entrepreneurs will optimize production, and limit usage of energy and water,” Maciej Nowicki, 67, said in an interview in Poznan, Poland today. “It’s just in our interest to reduce carbon dioxide emissions when making production more efficient.”

Delegates meet in Poznan tomorrow to discuss a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, which expires in 2012. Nowicki, who will chair the meeting, today asked delegates to set out plans for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions for as far into the future as 2050.

Richer nations need to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020, according to proposals from at least 36 countries, including European Union members and China. At least 49 poorer nations are advocating more lenient reductions of least 10 percent by 2020, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change said on its Web site.

Greenhouse gases emissions hit a record in 2007 with a 0.5 percent increase, according to the UN World Meteorological Organization’s annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin. Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide trap radiation within the atmosphere, causing the Earth to warm.

To contact the reporter on this story: Katarzyna Klimasinska in Poznan at kklimasinska@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 30, 2008 10:27 EST