Climate researchers from the Centre for Research and Energy and Clean Air, have argued that China’s latest carbon data indicates that it has altered how it calculates its national emissions, effectively reducing its emissions growth by half compared to what it previously reported between 2020 to 2025. China’s statistics on carbon intensity in its five-year plan, when extrapolated to absolute carbon emissions, suggest that emissions rose 7% between 2020 and 2025. However, the previous calculations on carbon intensity suggested that emissions would have risen 14% over the same period. This revision is reportedly equivalent to Germany or South Korea’s yearly emissions, according to the researchers. Their report suggests that China could achieve its 2030 climate target even if its absolute emissions increase. The revisions to the calculation appear to now exclude non-energy uses of fossil fuels, such as oil and coal in chemical production, which has increased in the past few years.
