Wildfire Emissions in Canada for First Half of 2023 Are Already Worse Than Any Full Year on Record

In just the first six months of 2023, Canada’s wildfire emissions have already hit a record-high for annual emissions.

According to the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), carbon emissions from January 1, 2023 to early May were fairly typical — nearly the same as the mean emissions from 2003 to 2022. But so far in June, carbon emissions have been estimated at more than 160 megatonnes, which caused the emissions for 2023 to increase sharply. Now, emissions for the first half of 2023 are higher than any other year recorded by CAMS, which began satellite monitoring in 2003.

The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre data shows there are currently 480 active fires burning in Canada, and there have been 2,981 fires so far this year. Air quality in Montreal is currently the worst anywhere in the world, The Canadian Press reported. There are currently more than 76,000 square kilometers (about 29,000 square miles) of land burning in the country.

Smoke from the wildfires has drifted significantly, impacting air quality in the midwestern and eastern U.S. and reaching Norway earlier this month. As more smoke moves into Europe this week, it is expected to cause hazy skies. The smoke has been so significant that it also interfered with solar energy generation in the U.S.

“Our monitoring of the scale and persistence of the wildfire emissions across Canada since early May has shown how unusual it has been when compared to the two decades of our dataset,” Mark Parrington, senior scientist at CAMS, said in a statement. “The long-range transport of smoke that we are currently monitoring is not unusual, and not expected to have any significant impact on surface air quality in Europe, but it is a clear reflection of the intensity of the fires that such high values of aerosol optical depth and other pollutants associated with the plume are so high as it reaches this side of the Atlantic.”

Further, in May, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) published a study that linked the emissions of 88 major fossil fuel and cement companies to worsening wildfires in the U.S. and Canada since 1986. The study linked the companies’ emissions to more than one-third of the total area burned by wildfires.

From the start of 2023 to now, Canada has had more than 8.1 million hectares burned by wildfires, Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre data shows.

Higher emissions and more wildfires are likely still ahead. As Reuters reported, peak wildfire season for Canada is usually in July and August. “There’s still no end in sight,” Parrington said, as Canada continues to experience hot, dry conditions.