China's coal production 17% greater than previous estimates // NY Times

As I prepare for my December trip to Beijing I check nervously the air quality reports.  At this moment at the Beijing Olympic Sports Center the AQI is 260 "very unhealthy".  At the same moment in New York it is "moderate" - AQI 51 - 100 in the region.  - gwc
China's coal production 17% greater than previous estimates // NY Times
by Chris Buckley

BEIJING — China, the world’s leading emitter of greenhouse gases from coal, is burning far more annually than previously thought, according to new government data. The finding could vastly complicate the already difficult efforts to limit global warming.
 

Even for a country of China’s size and opacity, the scale of the correction is immense. China has been consuming as much as 17 percent more coal each year than reported, according to the new government figures. By some initial estimates, that could translate to almost a billion more tons of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere annually in recent years, more than all of Germany emits from fossil fuels.

Officials from around the world will have to come to grips with the new figures when they gather in Paris this month to negotiate an international framework for curtailing greenhouse-gas pollution. The data also pose a challenge for scientists who are trying to reduce China’s smog, which often bathes whole regions in acrid, unhealthy haze.