News Climate

Wildfires in boreal forests released a record amount of CO2 in 2021

If it continues, the trend threatens to make fighting climate change even harder

A photo of smoke rising above a forest.

In 2021, boreal wildfires, such as this one in the Gorny Ulus area in Siberia, released record-breaking amounts of carbon dioxide.

DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty Images

By Nikk Ogasa

WASHINGTON — In 2021, wildfires pillaged the world’s carbon-rich snow forests.

That year, burning boreal forests released 1.76 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide, researchers reported March 2 in a news conference at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.