Canada’s 2023 wildfires emitted enough carbon to equal India’s annual emissions
AXIOS article August 29/24
EXCERPTS:
Canada’s record 2023 wildfire season emitted so much carbon into the atmosphere that it put the country on par with the annual fossil fuel emissions of India, a new study finds.
- The study’s results also illustrate the fraught politics of carbon accounting, since Canada does not report wildfire-related emissions to the U.N. under the Paris Agreement.
The paper, published in the journal Nature by an international team of researchers, provides a warning about designing carbon offset programs around ecosystems long thought to be relatively stable.
In just five months, Canada emitted enough carbon from wildfires in 2023 — 647 million metric tons — to be comparable to the annual fossil fuel emissions from the top 10 largest emitters.
The study notes that Canada does not currently report its emissions from wildfires, treating them as “natural disturbances” despite the ample evidence of how human-caused climate change is worsening these blazes.
Court Painter seen with an AHM painting
Images: Allan Harding MacKay Smouldering Boreal Series 2024