Carbon offset is up in smoke.
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Forest fires in Canada this year have released 290 million tonnes of carbon, doubling a previous annual record, and emissions are set to rise as hundreds of flames remain active across the country, according to the EU's Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service.
The estimated Canadian fires emissions account for over 25% of the global total for 2023 to date, and are well above the previous Canadian record of 138 million tonnes registered in 2014, Copernicus said on Thursday. Satellite monitoring of emissions began in 2003.
This year's wildfire season is also the worst on record for area burned, with about 131,000 square kilometres (50,579 square miles) already scorched across eastern and western Canada. That's about the size of Greece, and greater than the combined area burned in 2016, 2019, 2020 and 2022, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.
