Friday, November 16, 2007

WARNING on CARMA Database: Hong Kong company says database got it wrong on CO2 emissions

We had a post yesterday that included a link to the CARMA database on power plant emissions in the post RUSSIA: In Russia, Pollution Is Good for Business. At the time, we checked the Russian figures, which didn't seem as high as other published sources. Now we have this story,
from the International Herald Tribune:

U.S. researchers who listed a Hong Kong power plant as Asia's third worst polluter have agreed to retract the claim after it was found they used inaccurate data, the operator of the plant and the researchers said Friday.

The newly launched Carbon Monitoring for Action database said the coal-fired Castle Peak power plant spewed out 35.8 million tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide a year, making it the third biggest emitter of the greenhouse gas in Asia.

But China Light and Power, the company that operates the plant, said the data was wrong, citing its own independently audited reports that put carbon dioxide emissions at 13.3 million metric tons (14.7 million U.S. tons) for 2006, well under half the amount cited in the database....MORE

That's quite a discrepancy.