China has been dramatically underreporting its coal consumption
Official Chinese data that has just come to light reveals that China has been dramatically underreporting the amount of coal it consumes every year by 17% more than was previously disclosed by the government.  If correct, this means it has emitted nearly a billion additional tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year.  This is about the equivalent of the whole national consumption of Germany, and Germany is a large consumer of coal.  This could complicate matters in the fight against global warming ahead of the UN climate change conference in Paris starting 30 November.

China has been burning substantially more coal than previously believed, according to new government figures released this week. As The New York Times reports, the revised data show that China has been burning 17 percent more coal per year than previously reported, which early estimates equate to nearly 1 billion tons of additional carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. The revisions, based on new 2013 census data, show that China's coal consumption has been underestimated since 2000.

China is already the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide from coal, and the government has pledged to reduce its dependence ahead of a UN climate change conference in Paris this year, where world leaders hope to reach a global agreement on curbing greenhouse gas emissions. The country aims to have its carbon dioxide emissions peak by 2030, though this week's revelations suggest that more urgent action may be needed. In 2012, for example, the country consumed 600 million more tons of coal than previously reported, which equates to more than 70 percent of the coal used every year in the US. Chinese officials have yet to comment on the findings.

"It’s created a lot of consternation."

"It’s created a lot of consternation," Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research, tells the Times. "Our basic data will have to be adjusted, and the international agencies will also have to adjust their databases. This is troublesome because many forecasts and commitments were based on the previous data."

The Times notes that China's revision will not have any effect on previous estimates of total carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, which are measured directly. The task for scientists, then, is to identify where the additional CO2 from China's coal-burning plants was absorbed — possibly in forests or oceans.