China is the world's top energy consumer and CO2 emitter, accounting for 30% of global emissions. Compiling an accurate accounting of China's CO2 emissions is the first step in implementing reduction policies. However, no annual, officially published emissions data exist for China. The current emissions estimated by academic institutes and scholars exhibit great discrepancies. The gap between the different emissions estimates is approximately equal to the total emissions of the Russian Federation (the 4th highest emitter globally) in 2011. In this study, we constructed the time-series of CO2 emission inventories for China and its 30 provinces. We followed the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emissions accounting method with a territorial administrative scope. The inventories include energy-related emissions (17 fossil fuels in 47 sectors) and process-related emissions (cement production). The first version of our dataset presents emission inventories from 1997 to 2015. We will update the dataset annually. The uniformly formatted emission inventories provide data support for further emission-related research as well as emissions reduction policy-making in China.

As the centre of human activity and being under the threat of climate change, cities are considered to be major components in the implementation of climate change mitigation and CO2 emission reduction strategies. Inventories of cities' emissions serve as the foundation for the analysis of emissions characteristics and policymaking. China is the world's top energy consumer and CO2 emitter, and it is facing great potential harm from climate change. Consequently, China is taking increasing responsibility in the fight against global climate change. Many energy/emissions control policies have been implemented in China, most of which are designed at the national level. However, cities are at different stages of industrialization and have distinct development pathways; they need specific control policies designed based on their current emissions characteristics. This study is the first to construct emissions inventories for 182 Chinese cities. The inventories are constructed using 17 fossil fuels and 47 socioeconomic sectors. These city-level emissions inventories have a scope and format consistent with China's national/provincial inventories. Some socioeconomic data of the cities, such as GDP, population, industrial structures, are included in the datasets as well. The dataset provides transparent, accurate, complete, comparable, and verifiable data support for further city-level emissions studies and low-carbon/sustainable development policy design. The dataset also offers insights for other countries by providing an emissions accounting method with limited data.