{"id":448735,"date":"2026-06-05T09:07:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T16:07:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=448735"},"modified":"2026-06-05T09:07:45","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T16:07:45","slug":"china-rejects-accusations-of-cooking-the-books-on-carbon-emissions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=448735","title":{"rendered":"China Rejects Accusations of Cooking the Books on Carbon Emissions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essay by <\/strong>Eric Worrall<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essay by Eric Worrall<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently disappearing half of China\u2019s emissions has a perfectly reasonable explanation \u2013 and Western nations should look at their own carbon accounting practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

GT Voice: Western doubts about China\u2019s carbon accounting untenable<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Global Times <\/strong>Published: May 26, 2026 11:58 PM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite China\u2019s globally recognized investments and achievements in renewable energy development, skepticism about its climate actions remains a recurring topic of Western public opinion. This has less to do with genuine concern for climate governance than with the double standards applied by certain Western institutions.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

China\u2019s revised method for reporting carbon emissions may have erased half of the rise in levels over the past five years, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing an analysis from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), a European think tank. The CREA claimed that \u201cThe change in the definition of carbon intensity has the effect of weakening China\u2019s climate targets and introducing more uncertainty into tracking progress.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, the biased claim does not stand up to scrutiny.<\/strong> Without knowing China\u2019s actual methodology of measuring carbon intensity, the think tank\u2019s skepticism politicizes China\u2019s climate efforts through ideological bias while turning a blind eye to the country\u2019s substantial and tangible contributions to global decarbonization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is truly revealing about the CREA analysis is the double standard that underpins Western skepticism. Updating carbon accounting calibrations and retrospectively revising historical data are accepted as professional practices in the West.<\/strong> According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, many emission and sink estimates in the Inventory of US Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks are recalculated and revised each year as part of ongoing efforts to improve estimates through better methods and data, with the goal of enhancing inventory quality and reducing uncertainties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These practices have never drawn Western suspicion. Yet when China improves its statistical system, the same kind of move is deliberately misinterpreted as \u201cdata opacity\u201d and \u201cweakening targets.\u201d<\/strong> This glaring double standard shows that certain Western institutions are less interested in the science of climate governance than in stigmatizing China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026Read more: https:\/\/www.globaltimes.cn\/page\/202605\/1362011.shtml<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I think China missed the whole point of carbon accounting adjustments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While using accounting tricks to minimise reported carbon emissions might be an old game in the West, such as Australia\u2019s controversial use of Kyoto agreement era carbon credits to bolster claimed Paris Agreement compliance<\/a>, you\u2019re not supposed to do it all at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If China had made multiple adjustments over a year or two, nobody would have noticed. But cutting claimed net carbon emissions by half in one hit, it just looks naughty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I suspect what is really happening is China just doesn\u2019t care anymore. I mean, I now believe Xi Jinping was a genuine green energy enthusiast. But after the battering China\u2019s economy has received over the last decade, and the rising risk China is about to enter a new century of humiliation<\/a> thanks to the CCP\u2019s disastrous handling of China\u2019s banking crisis<\/a> and collapsing birth rate<\/a>, China has bigger problems than worrying about whether Western bureaucrats complain about their carbon accounting practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apparently disappearing half of China\u2019s emissions has a perfectly reasonable explanation \u2013 and Western nations should look at their own carbon accounting practices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":448737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691829997,691821898,691818341,691827128],"class_list":["post-448735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-carbon-dioxide-co","tag-carbon-emissions","tag-china","tag-emissions-targets","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0-Copilot-China-Rejects-Accusations-of-Cooking-the-Books-on-Carbon-Emissions.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1SJF","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":265321,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=265321","url_meta":{"origin":448735,"position":0},"title":"Claim: 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