Reporting Fraud Massive In China's Power Sector; No Official Audit Since 2013

[hatrack]

EDIT

No official data on the extent of the problem has been released since a government audit in 2013 found hundreds of power firms had falsified emissions data, although authorities have continued to name and shame individual operators.

"There is no guarantee of avoiding under-reporting (of emissions) at local plants located far away from supervisory bodies. Coal data is very fuzzy," said a manager with a state-owned power company, who did not want to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

The manager said firms could easily exaggerate coal efficiency by manipulating their numbers. For example, power companies that also provided heating for local communities could overstate the amount of coal used for heat generation, which is not subject to direct monitoring, and understate the amount used for power.

"Data falsification is a long-standing problem: China will not get its environmental house in order if it does not deal with this first," said Alex Wang, an expert in Chinese environmental law at UCLA.

EDIT

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-power-emissions-idUSKCN0UV0XS

[sue4e3]

1. "coal data is very fuzzy" I bet

[kristopher]

2. Wish like hell we had that problem.

At least the coal plant operators in China have a reasonrelated to CO2 that incentivizes them to falsify the data. Here, the primary purpose of the data is for investors and $$$$$.