Greenhouse gas emissions from forest fires in Europe hit this summer the highest value in the last 15 yearsreveal data collected by the Copernicus satellite observation system.
“The devastating fires in Europe this summer caused the highest emissions since 2007,” concluded scientists from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), who have observed daily emissions and impacts on air quality, both in Europe as elsewhere.
In information released, CAMS highlights that the combination of a heat wave in August with prolonged drought conditions in Western Europe resulted in increase in the intensity and persistence of forest fires.
Total emissions from EU and UK bushfires between June 1 and August 31, 2022, were estimated at 6.4 megatonnes of carbon, the highest level for those months since the summer of 2007.
“The registered emissions for the summer of 2022 were driven in large part by the devastating wildfires in southwestern France and in the Iberian Peninsula, with France and Spain registering the highest emissions from forest fires in the last 20 years,” the European system announced in a statement.
In other regions of the Northern Hemisphere, generally hit by peak fires in the summer, emissions were lower, despite some devastating fires.
Russia’s Far East was not as devastated by fire as in previous summers, but Russia’s most central and western regions were.”suffered a greater number of forest fires“, which resulted in several days of heavy smoke and “air quality degradation”.
“The estimated total emissions from the fires in the Central Federal District of Russia were the highest since the massive peat fires that affected western Russia in 2010,” the document says.
In North America, wildfires that started in Alaska in May continued into June and early July, with large fires burning in the Yukon and Canada’s Northwest Territories.
In the western United States, total daily fire intensity and total seasonal emissions were “much lower” for California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana compared to the summers of 2020 and 2021 and were “more typical” for the time of the fire. year, according to CAMS.
The fires in the Amazon, in the second half of August, caused “one of the highest estimated total emissions for the period since 2010 (along with 2019-2021).
The state of Amazonas presented emissions”well above averageresulting in the second highest July-August total (after 2021) in the last 20 years.
The Brazilian Amazon registers the highest number of fires in 12 years in August
“The first days of September saw clear increases in fires throughout the Amazon region, with daily values well above average in several Amazonian states, giving rise to a “large smoke zone in South America”.
Source: Observadora
