A sad record. This year, the European Union experienced its worst year in terms of areas burned by forest fires. According to a report updated on Tuesday by the European forest fire information system (Effis) and the European program on climate change Copernicus, more than 785,000 hectares went up in smoke from January 1 to November 19.
This is “more than double the average of just over 317,000 hectares between 2006 and 2021”, it is indicated. These fires resulted in “total carbon emissions for 2022 estimated at 9 megatons, compared to an average of 6.75 megatons in 2003-2021”, it added.
Record fires in southwestern France and Spain
A first assessment was made by the two organizations at the end of the summer, already announcing record levels, with 662,776 hectares burned since January. According to satellite data from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) released on Tuesday, total wildfire emissions from the European Union and the United Kingdom from June 1 to August 31, 2022 are estimated at 6.4 megatonnes. of carbon, the highest level for these months since the summer of 2007.
The “duration and intensity of the heat waves that hit Europe during the summer, combined with the general dry conditions on the continent in 2022, contributed to these record levels” of fires, underlines Copernicus. These records are due in particular to the major fires that affected the south-west of France and Spain.
CAMS confirms what it had already announced in August, namely that Spain and France recorded the highest carbon emissions from June to August in the 20 years of the data set, which begins in 2003…