Blazes across Europe this summer, especially in the Iberian peninsula, caused the continent’s largest recorded wildfire carbon emissions in nearly a quarter-century, the EU climate monitor Copernicus said Thursday.
After a summer marked by “intense wildfire activity”, “the emissions resulting from these wildfires have been the largest for any summer in at least the last 23 years,” said Laurence Rouil, Director of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service.
Across the European Union and the United Kingdom, fires released 12.9 megatonnes of planet-warming carbon dioxide into the atmosphere up until September 15, beating the previous record of 11.4 megatonnes set in 2003 and 2017.
Based on the monitor’s estimates, the continent’s total yearly emissions are set to be the highest since records began 23 years ago — “with the fire season still active”.
It comes as Europe and the wider Mediterranean basin saw a record drought in August, according to an AFP analysis of EU data, in the latest of global warming-related records to tumble in recent years.
Scientists have long warned that climate change caused by mankind’s burning of fossil fuels will make periods of drought more intense and longer-lasting, creating the ideal conditions for wildfires.
In turn, the burning of forests releases more emission into the atmosphere and deprives the planet of carbon-absorbing plants.
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