Wildfires in Canada Exceed the Fossil Emissions of Almost Every Country

Wildfires in Canada's boreal forests in 2023 have caused more climate-damaging carbon dioxide emissions than the fossil fuels of nearly any country in the world, according to a study published on Wednesday. Only China, the United States, and India emitted more CO₂ from fossil fuels than the Canadian wildfires, according to the research published in the journal 'Nature.' These fires raise doubts about how much carbon the forests can still absorb in the future, scientists said. This could also question all previous calculations of the amount of greenhouse gases that can still be released into the atmosphere without exceeding global temperature targets. The most ambitious target of the 2015 Paris Agreement is 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Beyond that, researchers said, it will become increasingly difficult to adapt to global warming. Historically, boreal forests have significantly contributed to slowing climate change by storing carbon as trees grew. Although the hot and dry weather that fueled the fires in Canada last year was unusual, climate projections suggest this could become the norm in the 2050s if the current path of global warming continues. 'This raises many questions about whether these fires will become more frequent,' said Brendan Byrne, a carbon cycle scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and one of the study's authors. 'This could potentially have major impacts on the ability of these forests to store carbon.'