China's emissions overestimated: Is America back on top?
New research reveals China鈥檚 carbon emissions were overestimated for more than a decade by international agencies.
According to the study,聽published in the , China emitted 2.9 gigatons less carbon from 2000 to 2013聽than previous estimates.聽
The paper said organizations like the European Union's Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) have overestimated China's emissions by as much as 14 percent by using default conversion rates that should not apply in China.
The researchers, led by Dabo Guan, chair of climate change economics at the University of East Anglia in England, analyzed coal used as fuel in China, and found that it is generally less rich in carbon and is burned less efficiently than scientists had assumed.
The study examined fuel quality in great detail 鈥� something the authors say is missing from other estimates.
"While China is the largest coal consumer in the world, it burns much lower-quality coal, such as brown coal, which has a lower heat value and carbon content compared to the coal burned in the US and Europe," .
China has never been forthright about annual carbon emissions, so 鈥渋nternational organizations have to make larger assumptions鈥� than are required for other key nations, Glen Peters, another author of the study,聽
Indeed, the study found that China's聽total energy consumption since 2000 was 10 percent higher than the government reported 鈥撀燽ut that even so, emissions for Chinese coal were on average 40 percent lower than the default values recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
But China still has a long way to go.
鈥淭his doesn鈥檛 change the fact that China is still the largest emitter in the world,鈥� 鈥淏ut it shows we need to know a more accurate base line for emissions, not only for China but also for the other emissions giants.鈥�
attributed a startling new death toll to China鈥檚 toxic air problem. The study聽by聽researchers聽from聽Berkeley Earth indicated that聽air pollution is killing more than 4,000 people in China per day. That鈥檚 about 1.6 million every year, or 17 percent of all deaths.
China overtook the United States as the world鈥檚 largest emitter of greenhouse gases in 2007 鈥� and has retained that spot ever since. But last year, the country pledged to cut emissions by 2030 through improved enforcement efforts and by increasing its use of聽聽to 20 percent of its total energy budget.
