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As wildfires become more common and more intense, they are disrupting the Earth’s carbon balance.

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According to the study, as wildfires become more common and intense, they burn through the natural carbon reservoirs that have historically helped regulate the Earth’s climate. 

Multiple states in the United States were recently affected by tornadoes, wildfires, and dust storms.

According to the Copernicus Air Monitoring Service (CAMS) of the European Union, wildfires released 800,000 tonnes of carbon in January 2025.

• It also noted that the fires' radiative power, i.e., the amount of heat they radiated, measured in watts.
• It found that this radiative power exceeded the long-term average power between 2003 and 2024 by one order of magnitude.

The 2024 Arctic Report Card issued by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) states that frequent wildfires are turning the Arctic tundra into a source of carbon by forcing it to absorb record levels of pollution due to burning fossil fuels.

Arctic Boreal Zone (ABZ): From Carbon Sink to Carbon Source

ABZ- a vast stretch of tundra, coniferous forests, and wetlands around the Arctic Circle. Its permafrost has trapped carbon for centuries.

Earth’s oceans, forests, and soil are well-known carbon sinks. 

ABZ turn from sink to source: While the Arctic Boreal Zone (ABZ) absorbed carbon from 2001 to 2020, one-third of the zone has been releasing carbon dioxide since 2001.

• Alaska accounted for 44% of the ‘new’ emissions, and Northern Europe and Siberia accounted for 25% and 13%, respectively.

Increasing ferocity of wildfires:  As per the study published in Nature Climate Change, more than 30% of the ABZ has now stopped capturing carbon and is instead releasing it.

• The study also stated that the carbon emissions from non-summer months in the ABZ had surpassed the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed during the summer months (June to August).

ABZ transformed from a carbon sink to a carbon source, which was helped by the Eastern Siberia fires in Russia in 2003 and the Timmins wildfire in Canada in 2012.

Key reasons for the ABZ releasing more carbon dioxide.

• Thawing of tundra permafrost.
• More pronounced effects of global warming in cooler regions.

India’s Wildfire Scenario

• According to the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2023, published in December 2024, Uttarakhand, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh reported the highest number of forest fire.
• Uttarakhand alone recorded 5,315 forest fires between November 2022 and June 2023.
• The number of fire ‘hotspots’ across country decreased from 2.23 lakh in 2021-2022 to 2.03 lakh in 2023-2024.
• A 2023 study by IIT-Kharagpur and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, found that land temperature in northwest, northeast, and central India are rising by  0.1º–0.3ºC per decade in the pre-monsoon season and 0.2º–0.4ºC per decade in the post-monsoon season.
• Forest fires in India emit approximately 69 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.