Correction to: Nature Climate Change https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-021-01199-z, published online 25 October 2021.

The version of this article initially published was based on descriptions of emissions reductions discussed in the original article1, which has since been amended to correct for a calculation error2. In the third paragraph now reading “Relying on extensive traffic-monitoring data and standard statistical methods (difference-in-difference), the Article by Lin et al. shows that the massive expansion of the Chinese high-speed rail network since 2006 has led to a reduction in annual GHG emissions equivalent to just above 11 million tons of CO2, which corresponds to around 1.3% of the total GHG emissions in China’s transport sector,” the text “above 11 million tons” originally read “below 15 million tons” while the text “around 1.3%” originally read “1.75%.” Further, in the fourth paragraph, the third sentence now reading “For instance, the authors calculate that the beneficial effect of the high-speed rail system would have been around twice as high in a hypothetical scenario with the Chinese electricity mix replaced by the French structure,” the text “around twice as high” has replaced “almost twice as high.” The changes have been made in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.