Fake emissions report data undermines China's pollution fight

Beijing

WIDESPREAD misreporting of harmful gas emissions by Chinese electricity firms is threatening the country's attempts to rein in pollution, with government policies aimed at generating cleaner power struggling to halt the practice.

Coal-fired power accounts for three-quarters of China's total generation capacity and is a major source of the toxic smog that shrouded much of the country's north last month, prompting "red alerts" in dozens of cities, including the capital Beijing.

But the government…