France had never recorded such carbon emissions since 2003, the year the surveys began. Due to the numerous forest fires affecting the country this summer, carbon dioxide emissions are reaching record levels, the European Copernicus program, in charge of monitoring climate change, announced on Friday.
The latest satellite data from this atmosphere monitoring service, dated Thursday, show that France’s estimated emissions from forest fires for the months of June, July and August are the highest since 2003. Europe is also experiencing a dramatic season with fires in Spain and Portugal.
Above, a satellite view of the new fire which affects the Gironde, in red the area of the Landiras forest which went up in smoke in July 2022.
Emissions well above average
The burning of trees releases carbon dioxide and more than a million tonnes have been released in the atmosphere since the beginning of the year by the French fires. A figure well above the average: just over 0.5 million tonnes. At this rate, the record for the whole of 2003 at nearly 1.3 million tonnes could be beaten and make 2022 the worst year since records began.
The heat wave in the Iberian Peninsula and the southwest of France “worsened the fires“, explains Copernicus scientist Mark Parrington. With the high fire season not yet over, emissions for the whole of 2022 remain for the moment lower than those observed in 2003, the record year according to data from the Global Fire Assimilation System (GFAS), which is based on satellite observations of active fires and fire radiative power.
According to statistics consulted on Friday from the European forest fire information system EFFIS, 60,558 hectares have burned in France since January, 245,293 hectares in Spain, and 76,423 hectares in Portugal.