Effective measurement is an integral first step to managing emissions - GHG emissions inventories establish a basis for designing climate change policies and emissions reduction action plans. The accurate measurement of the GHG emissions from coal-fired power generation needs to play a crucial role in mitigating and managing China’s national emissions. Historically, though, inventories of China’s power sector emissions have represented rough estimates that did not sufficiently address the variances in generation efficiency and coal quality amongst power plants. The methodologies used diverge from international accounting best practices, which has been facilitated by the absence of a Chinese sectoral guidance.

The World Resources Institute (WRI) and China Electricity Council (CEC) partnered to develop technical resources for determining the emissions from Chinese coal-fired power plants through a collaborative, multi-stakeholder process. This includes a methodology for measuring emissions, informed through analysis of international best practices and the current measuring and reporting practices related to GHG emissions accounting in China’s power sector. The new methodology is the basis of impending GHG accounting standards for Chinese coal-fired power plants.

Building on this methodology, WRI and its partners also created an Excel-based Calculation Tool for Chinese Coal-fired Power Plants to help users quantify the GHG emissions from individual power generation facilities. This tool addresses data availability challenges specific to the Chinese coal-fired power sector, is applicable to combined heat and power (CHP) plants, and calculates performance indexes. It also has user-friendly features, such as the built-in emissions factors of purchased electricity for scope 2 missions calculation, to make it easier to perform the calculations.