This is unheard of since 2007. Forest fires that occurred between June 1 and August 31 in the European Union and Great Britain generated 6.4 megatonnes of CO2 emissions, the European service estimated on Tuesday. Copernicus atmosphere monitoring.

To make these estimates, the Cams locates, from space, the location of forest fires and analyzes their radiative power, a measure of the intensity which makes it possible to estimate the atmospheric pollutants in the smoke.

Emission records in France and Spain

The fires that have ravaged France and the Iberian Peninsula in recent weeks largely explain this record.

France and Spain record their highest carbon emissions linked to forest fires from June to August since 2003, details Copernicus in a press release.

Enough to unscrew the figures for 2022 a little more. Thus, since the beginning of the year, France has already lost 62,000 ha following forest fires, against an annual average of 9,825 ha over the period 2006-2021, relates the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis).

Spain, for its part, is already at nearly 300,000 ha, against an average of 66,965 over the period 2006-2021.

Elsewhere in Europe, Copernicus points to major forest fires in Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Hungary or Germany.

In the latter country, the cumulative area burned since the beginning of the year amounts to 4,293 ha.

This is almost double the previous record (2,437 ha), specifies Copernicus.

508,260 hectares burned this summer in the EU

If we return to the scale of the European Union, 508,260 hectares burned during the summer, compared to an average of 215,548 hectares for the same period in 2006-2021.

Since the beginning of the year and until September 3, more than 750,000 hectares have burned, while the average for the period 2006-2021 was around 260,000 hectares.

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