A new study pointed out an overestimation of China's coal emissions, chalking the mistake up to measuring different types of coal incorrectly.

According to BBC News, authors of a study published in the journal Nature found the country produced about 14 percent less carbon dioxide than previously reported. The inconsistency was also determined to have lowered the globe's CO2 output in 2013 by about 10 percent.

China's CO2 production that year was then measured to be some 40 percent below what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recommends. Dabo Guan contributed to the newly published study and also served as a lead author on the fifth and most recent climate assessment the IPCC released.

"It doesn't change the fact that China is the largest emitter in the world and it doesn't suggest that they should do less in terms of climate change mitigation," he told The Guardian. "In fact it puts China into a leading role in terms of creating a more accurate baseline for major developing countries - the foundation for any policy measures. If you don't have an accurate baseline, any policy measures can be a number-crunching game. Developing countries are the major contributors to the future - having this sort of data is crucial for future climate change negotiations."

For their study, the researchers looked at "emission factors," an international metric that quantifies the carbon being produced from burning fuels, BBC News noted. The IPCC sets the factors based on global averages for the various types of coals burned.

The researchers tested 602 coal samples from more than 4,000 mines in China.

"For most of the developed countries, coal has been comprehensively washed but in China the process is not so comprehensive," study lead author Zhu Liu, of Harvard University, told BBC News. "Basically, the coal contains higher ash; more ash means there is less carbon. If we convert the same amount of coal, we get fewer carbon emissions. That's why we get a lower level than previous estimations."