Skip to content

2023 B.C. wildfires pumped 102 megatonnes of carbon into atmosphere: EU

B.C.’s total greenhouse emissions in 2021 were 40 megatonnes less than 2023 wildfires on their own
web1_240104-cco-year-end-front-page-photos_1
This 2023 wildfire near Entiako Park, located approximately 150 km southeast of Houston and 150 km southwest of Vanderhoof, directly east of Tweedsmuir Provincial Park, helped to pump 102 megatonnes of carbon from provincial wildfires into the atmosphere. The figure comes from the European Union’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring System. (Pete Laing/Courtesy of BC Wildfire Service)

As B.C. prepares for another potentially difficult wildfire season, the record-setting wildfire season of 2023 contributed to about 21 per cent of Canada’s carbon emissions from wildfires, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring System.

CAMS’s Global Fire Assimilation System uses fire radiative power observations from satellite-based sensors to produce daily estimates of wildfire and biomass burning emissions.

‘’CAMS estimated 102 megatonnes of carbon from wildfires in British Columbia for 2023,” Mark Parrington, CAMS senior scientist, said in a statement to Black Press Media.

Support local journalism today

Join thousands of other like-minded readers and sign up below to gain immediate & unlimited access to our news for the next 30 days – plus start receiving our newsletters.

Sign Up with google Sign Up with facebook

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Reset your password

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

A link has been emailed to you - check your inbox.



Don't have an account? Click here to sign up


Wolf Depner

About the Author: Wolf Depner

I joined the national team with Black Press Media in 2023 from the Peninsula News Review, where I had reported on Vancouver Island's Saanich Peninsula since 2019.
Read more