Record wildfires last year made Canada one of the top four greenhouse gas emitters in the world, according to a study released Wednesday, August 27 by Nature, Ecology and Evolutionwhich also casts doubt on the future capacity of the country’s forests to capture and store significant amounts of carbon dioxide. In 2023, a significant number of fires swept across Canada, with 15 million hectares (or 4% of Canada’s total forest area) burned and more than 200,000 people evacuated.
By examining satellite data for the presence of carbon in smoke plumes from fires burning between May and September 2023, researchers determined that 2,371 megatons of carbon dioxide (CO2) and carbon monoxide (CO) were released. Canada thus moved from 11th to 4th place among the world’s largest emitters of CO2, behind China, the United States and India.
Researchers warn that the hot, dry weather that causes these fires is expected to become the norm by 2050 and is “It will likely lead to an increase in fire activity”. “This raises the question of whether potentially more frequent and intense fires in the coming decades will reduce the ability of Canadian forests to serve as carbon sinks.”Brendan Byrne, lead author of the study, told Agence France-Presse.
A catastrophic impact in certain regions
Canada’s boreal forest, a vast swath stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean, contains significant amounts of sequestered carbon, and when vegetation in burned forests grows back over decades, the carbon released by fires is typically reabsorbed.
However, the increase in the magnitude and number of fires, associated with droughts in certain regions, could slow down the regeneration of forests and “prevent carbon uptake”According to the study, Canada must adjust its permitted fossil fuel emissions downwards to “offsetting the reduction in carbon uptake by forests”concludes the study.
The Canadian government agreed in the Paris Agreement to cut carbon emissions by 40 to 45% by 2030 compared with 2005 levels. Human activity has warmed the planet over the past two decades, and the frequency and intensity of extreme wildfires have more than doubled worldwide, according to another study published in June in the same journal.
Canada’s wildfire season has been calmer this year, but it still had a catastrophic impact in some regions, including the western resort town of Jasper, which was partially destroyed in July.
