Canada’s 2023 wildfires produced around 647 teragrams of carbon, exceeding emissions from all but three countries. Only China, the US and India emitted more carbon than Canadian wildfires in 2023, according to a study in the journal Nature.
The year marked Canada’s hottest and driest summer since 1980, leading to the worst wildfire season in its history with blazes coast-to-coast. The emissions from these fires were five times higher than Canada’s total annual emissions and comparable to India’s emissions of 740 teragrams last year.