Record-breaking wildfires in 2023 have put Canada among the top four CO2 emitters in the world, according to a study released Wednesday, which also casts doubt on the future capacity of its forests to capture and store significant amounts of carbon dioxide.
Last year saw a catastrophic number of wildfires across the country, with 15 million hectares burned (about 4% of Canada’s total forest area) and more than 200,000 people displaced.
Analyzing satellite data on carbon monoxide in smoke plumes from wildfires between May and September last year, researchers determined that 2,371 megatonnes of CO2 were released, boosting Canada’s position from 11th to 4th among the world’s top CO2 emitters.
Thus, in 2023, Canada was behind China, the United States and India.
Researchers warn that the hot, dry weather responsible for such fires is projected to become the norm by the 2050s, and is “likely to drive increased fire activity.”
“This raises concerns about whether potentially more frequent and intense fires in the coming decades will undermine the ability of Canadian forests to continue serving as carbon sinks,” Brendan Byrne, lead author of the study, told AFP.
Canada’s boreal forest, a vast swath stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic, contains significant amounts of what is known as “sequestered” CO2.
CO2 released by fires is typically reabsorbed as burned forests regrow over decades. But the increasing size and number of annual fires, coupled with droughts in some regions, could mean that forests would take longer to regrow. This, in turn, “could suppress carbon uptake by forests,” the study said.
Canada would have to lower its permitted fossil fuel emissions to “compensate for the lower carbon absorption by forests,” it concluded.
Under the Paris Agreement, Ottawa has pledged to cut its carbon emissions by 40-45% from 2005 levels by 2030.
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