Chris Buckley, New York Times, reports that China has been burning up to 17 percent more coal per year that the government had previously disclosed. This new revelation will be make if difficult to limit global warming considering that just the increase is more greenhouse gases than what the whole German economy emits annually.
This latest data is especially troublesome as officials from all over the world gather in Paris next month to negotiate an international framework to cut greenhouse gas pollution.
This consumption of coal has been underestimated since 2000 and the revisions add about 600 million tons to China’s coal consumption which is equivalent to more than 70 percent of the total coal used annual by the United States.
Buckley also notes that this isn’t the first time the China has underestimated its coal consumption.
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