European fires increase the carbon footprint of the continent

There were 650 firefighters who this Tuesday, August 16, tried to put out several hot spots that continued to burn in the Landiras fire, in the southwest of France, which has already consumed 74 square kilometers.

But in total, more than 600 square kilometers of forest have been destroyed so far this year in France, more than any other year in the last decade, according to data from the European Forest Fire Information System.

In addition, the European Union’s environmental monitoring program Copernicus announced last Friday that France has reached its record for carbon emissions from fires since records began in 2003.

“Global warming makes it easier for fires to start and spread,” explains Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, former vice president of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He adds that the fires will become more frequent, so “we will have to prepare ourselves to take measures that reduce the risk, managing forests and water in different ways, so that the consequences on humans and ecosystems are not so great” .

“Climate change will continue to get worse,” says van Ypersele, “if we fail to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.”

Carbon emissions worsen air quality

Forest fires emit various greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen oxide, which are toxic to humans, as well as extra-fine particles and tar.

As fires become more and more intense, they worsen the quality of the air we breathe. Between June and August 11 this year, the French fires emitted almost a million tons of carbon, equivalent to the annual emissions of 790,000 cars. At this rate, 2022 could be the worst year for emissions from fire since records began in 2003.

In Spain, the record was already broken during the heat wave in mid-July last, a period marked by the violent fires in Extremadura, in the southwest, and Galicia, in the northwest. Data from the Global Fire Assimilation System showed that the total estimated carbon emissions from fires in Spain between June 1 and July 17 were already higher than the sum between those two months from 2003 to 2021.

The heat wave in the Iberian Peninsula and the French southwest “made the fires worse”, according to Mark Parrington, a scientist at the Copernicus observatory. In total, they burned more than 2,450 square kilometers in Spain and more than 760 in Portugal.

Once the flames are extinguished and the smoke has dissipated, the impact on the climate is measured according to how many trees have been burned. Once it has been converted to ashes, the vegetation cannot fulfill its role as a “carbon sink”. Atmospheric chemist Sophie Szopa recently recalled that France’s forests capture approximately 25% of the country’s carbon dioxide emissions.

“Carbon sinks in France have been declining since 1990, partly due to population growth and droughts. Fires are an added pressure,” explains the specialist.

A burned forest can take 30 years to absorb the same amount of carbon that was emitted during its fire.

high ozone pollution

In addition to fires and carbon emissions, each heat spike also brings increased ozone levels, Copernicus reported last week.

This highly irritating, colorless gas is formed when the sun interacts with fossil energy emissions and pollution from cars and factories. It happens naturally at high altitudes, but at a more superficial level this gas ends up turning into a toxic fog that damages ecosystems and human health.

“The potential impacts of this ozone pollution on health are considerable, both in respiratory and cardiovascular diseases,” Parrington explains in the Copernicus report. “High numbers can lead to symptoms such as sore throats, coughs, headaches and an increased risk of asthma attacks. The Clean Air Alliance estimates that ozone pollution causes approximately one million additional deaths per year. That’s why that it is crucial to monitor surface ozone levels.

A study published by Canadian researchers in the scientific journal Science exposes the negative impact of smoke from forest fires on the ozone layer. Based on the consequences of the 2019 and 2020 fires in Australia, the researchers show that the smoke that reached the atmosphere caused a drop in ozone concentration and an increase in chlorinated gases. They conclude that these disturbances create “holes” in the ozone layer, similar to those observed in 1980.

Van Ypersele assures that “whether we are ready or not, our societies will be forced to reduce their carbon footprint if we want to leave our children and grandchildren with a habitable planet.”

If not, the world will continue to go through even more “extreme events such as those we see now or those we have experienced in the past,” he adds.

Although the former IPCC official acknowledges that technology can play an important role in the fight against climate change, he also points out that the underlying problem is that 80% of global energy needs fossil energy such as coal, oil and gas to work.

“If we don’t make a fundamental change in the system, which is often focused on short-term profit without considering the long-term consequences of the decisions we make, then unfortunately the climate will be affected,” he laments.

“I think that, generally speaking, we never do enough to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, because as long as these emissions are greater than zero, taking into account both what is released and what is absorbed by nature, the alteration will continue to exist. And we are very far from having zero emissions”.

From van Ypersele’s perspective, the European goal of reaching these zero levels by 2050 is “a long way off”. “We still have much more to do,” he concludes.

*This article is a translation of its original in French