By Kate Abnett

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Wildfires produced a record amount of carbon emissions in parts of Siberia, the United States and Turkey this year, as climate change fanned unusually intense blazes, the European Union’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service said on Monday.

Copernicus reported that wildfires globally emitted 1.76 million tonnes of carbon in 2021. This is more than twice the annual CO2 emission of Germany.

Some of the most affected hotspots had their highest wildfire emissions in January and November, since Copernicus started its data collection in 2003. They included parts of Siberia’s Yakutia, Turkey, Tunisia, and the west United States.

We have witnessed extensive wildfire activity in many regions. Mark Parrington (a Copernicus senior scientist) said that the changing climate has made it more difficult for vegetation to withstand fire and become more flammable.

The global wildfire emissions weren’t at their highest level since 2003. However, Copernicus predicted that they would rise due to climate change.

Yakutia’s northeastern Siberia saw its highest level of wildfire-related CO2 emissions since 2003. Western Siberia had a much higher daily average for CO2 emissions, with a large number of fires.

Copernicus stated that North American fires that erupted in California, Canada and the Pacific Northwest produced around 83,000,000 tonnes of CO2 which emitted huge smoke plumes. These plumes drifted over the Atlantic towards Europe.

California’s Dixie fire, which burned nearly 1 million acres, was one of the biggest recorded fires in California history.

The Mediterranean saw a scorching summer that sparked intense fires across many countries, including Turkey and Greece. Copernicus reported that the area’s air quality was deteriorating as the fires produced high amounts of harmful particular matter.