Atmospheric scientists release first ‘bottom-up’ estimates of China’s CO2 emissions

“The levels of uncertainty indicate that Chinese domestic frameworks to set control targets for CO2 emissions at scales larger than individual factories, such as provinces or sectors, may reflect unwarranted confidence in the measurability and verifiability of the impacts of policy interventions,” says senior author Michael B. McElroy, Gilbert Butler Professor of Environmental Studies at SEAS.

“Such levels of uncertainty aren’t unique to China among developing and emerging economies,” Zhao cautions. “All have less-developed data systems than those that have been built up over decades to serve energy markets and environmental regulation in the United States and other industrialized countries. It’s critical that international agreements to limit CO2 emissions recognize these differences in national data conditions.”

I’ll bet chinese officialdom isn’t the only one that has trouble with effective measurement.

via Atmospheric scientists release first ‘bottom-up’ estimates of China’s CO2 emissions.

Tags: China, CO2