China’s environmental watchdog has named four companies that falsified carbon emission reports. As data fraud continues to undermine the country’s ambitious climate goals, a former employee in China’s environment ministry analyzed the causes. On March 14, China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) said that data verification agencies manipulated reports and falsified testing dates, emissions data, and carbon footprint results. The findings came after a three-month campaign launched by the ministry last October and aimed at verifying the accuracy of carbon emission reports submitted by local entities nationwide. Beijing-based data verification firm Zhongtan Nengtou Tech Co. was charged with “making false coal samples” and “tampering with and forging test reports.” A second firm, Liaoning Dongmei Testing and Analysis Research Institute, was also charged with tampering with test reports. Two other companies, Beijing-based SinoCarbon Innovation & Investment Co and Shandong province’s Qingdao Xinuo Renewable, were separately charged with “writing distorted and …