China's greenhouse gas emissions 'overestimated'

The United Nations and other international bodies have vastly overestimated China's greenhouse gas emissions over the past decade or more, according to a study released on Wednesday.

In2013, for example, China's total carbon emissions were 14 percent less than the figures used by the UN's panel of experts tasked with providing the scientific framework for global climate talks, said the study published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature.

From 2000 to 2013, the country produced nearly 3 billion metric tons less carbon than previously thought, a figure equivalent to roughly one-third of current global annual emissions.