1054. The Impact of Canada’s 2023 Forest Fires

Last year, Canada experienced massive forest fires, the smoke of which reached even Europe and China. Canada's record-breaking 2023 forest fires emitted as much as 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, four times the amount of carbon emitted by the global aviation sector, according to the World Resources Institute (WRI).

Unlike emissions from tropical forest loss, which involve permanent land-use change, most of the carbon emitted by Canada's wildfires is expected to be absorbed as forests recover. However, it will take decades to reabsorb the carbon dioxide emitted in one year, and the irreversible damage caused by climate change cannot be avoided.

The scale of forest fires in 2023 was particularly large and was considered to be part of a trend in which these fires are becoming more frequent and damaging. Temperatures in Canada and the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere are warming at twice the global average. High temperatures dry out the landscape and create conditions that are prone to forest fires. Additionally, there exists a fire-climate feedback loop whereby carbon emitted by forest fires exacerbates climate change.

On the other hand, it seems that most emissions from forest fires are not included in Canada's emissions counting methodologies. Given that forest fires are becoming a major source of carbon dioxide emissions, there should be a system to properly account for them in the global emissions inventory.

Contributor: IIYAMA Miyuki, Information Program