Last year's megafires in Canada produced as much carbon dioxide as three years of economic activity.

Global warming fuels extreme wildfires in a feedback loop

Blazes burn twice as much as 20 years ago; Canada lost an area half Japan's size in 2023

AKIRA OIKAWA and TAKASHI TSUJI, Nikkei staff writers

January 21, 2024 16:50 JST

TOKYO/BRUSSELS -- Wildfires caused by climate change continue to burn forests worldwide, discharging large amounts of carbon dioxide and fueling global warming. Last year's large forest fires in Canada produced three times more CO2 than the amount the country generally emits from its annual economic activity.

"Temperatures during 2023 likely exceed those of any period in at least the last 100,000 years," said Samantha Burgess, deputy head of the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service, warning against the growing risk of the greenhouse effect.