Global biomass burning emissions in 2026 at their lowest level since 2003 – Copernicus – EnviroNews

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Global emissions from biomass burning during the first half of 2026 (January 1 to June 30) were the lowest for the period in the 24-year record of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service’s fire emissions dataset.

The Global Fire Assimilation System (GFAS) indicates that reduced seasonal fires in tropical Africa was a major contributing factor to the general decrease. However, in late June, fire activity in North America and Eurasia has quickly increased, meaning this positive picture could quickly change.

Total estimated carbon emissions from biomass burning for the first half of the year came to just below 400 megatonnes of carbon. By Continent, the main contributors were Africa, with 154 megatonnes and Asia with 113 megatonnes of carbon. Both regions have a long-standing tradition of agricultural fires during the dry season.

During the second half of June, fire activity and emissions have increased significantly in North America. Ignited mainly by lightning strikes, large wildfires developed in several Canadian provinces. The plumes of smoke, including particulate matter and gases such as carbon monoxide, were observed in the CAMS aerosol optical depth forecasts.

CAMS has been monitoring the plumes of smoke transported to the Canadian Arctic and across the North Atlantic. The largest fires were observed over the Northwest Territories and Manitoba. The overall carbon emissions for Canada remains below average.

The CAMS review of the first half of 2026 in wildfires includes an analysis of the fire activity in north and western Europe, following unusually dry and warm conditions as well as the intense start of the year in the Southern Hemisphere. 

Wildfire emissions’ impacts on health and the environment are a matter of global concern as a growing body of research reveals its widespread consequences. 

Mark Parrington, Senior Scientist at the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, said: “The record low total biomass burning emissions for the first half of 2026 continues the overall downward trend related to changes in savanna fires in tropical Africa and Asia. However, the observed onset of many large-scale wildfires across Eurasia and North America in the last couple of weeks of June, could increase the global total emissions through the rest of the summer.

“Looking further ahead, the predicted El Niño conditions have the potential to increase global fire emissions, as we observed during the previous El Niño years of 2015 and 2019 when persistent biomass burning in Indonesia caused widespread regional haze and severely degraded air quality. While the first half of the year provides a positive snapshot, continued monitoring remains essential as wildfire smoke can still have significant air quality impacts and conditions can change quickly.”

CAMS GFAS takes satellite observations from the VIIRS and MODIS satellites and computes estimates of fire radiative power, calculating emissions of carbon and other pollutants from wildfires and their expected evolution using the ECMWF* Integrated Forecasting System model.