2024 wildfires released estimated 791 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, equivalent to total emissions of Germany
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A new study published by researchers at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre has revealed the Amazon rainforest has just undergone its most devastating forest fire season in more than two decades.
The 2024 season brought with it record-breaking carbon emissions, exposing the region’s growing ecological fragility. Wildfires in 2024 released an estimated 791 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, roughly equating to the annual emissions of Germany. This marks a sevenfold increase from the average of the previous two years.
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According to the study published today in Biogeosciences, 3.3 million hectares of forest in the Amazon were impacted by fires last year alone. Such an uptick is likely driven by a combination of extreme drought stress exacerbated by climate change, forest fragmentation and land-use mismanagement (such as criminal fires by land grabbers).
Most of the forests affected by the fires are in Brazil (50 per cent) and Bolivia (42 per cent), followed by Venezuela (4.9 per cent) and Peru (1.5 per cent).
Degraded forests may seem intact from above, but closer analysis shows how they have eroded due to fires without actually being cleared. As such, they lose a significant portion of biomass and ecological function.
For the first time ever, fire-indued degradation has overtaken deforestation in the Amazon as the primary driver of carbon emissions.
To come to their conclusions, researchers drew on satellite-based imagery that was able to filter out false signals caused by agricultural fires or cloud cover.
The geographical spread of fires alarmed scientists – in Brazil, 2024 marked the highest level of emissions from forest degradation on record, while in Bolivia, fires affected more than nine per cent of the country’s remaining intact forest cover. These fires are huge blows to a region historically serving as a vital biodiversity reservoir and carbon sin.
To prevent such fires, the study calls for immediate and coordinated action to strengthen forest protection policies and support local and Indigenous stewardship efforts.
Is the Amazon at risk?
Around 17 per cent of the Amazon has already been destroyed. And while it may seem that there is a lot of forest still left, we are moving closer to a ‘tipping point’ – where the rainforest is unable to sustain itself and the Amazon could break down for good.
Research has shown the Amazon will reach this tipping point if deforestation and climate change continue. In this scenario, large parts of the rainforest will turn into dry, degraded savannah ecosystems releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Many scientists offer various timescales for when this could occur, with some projecting it could come if we destroy around five per cent more of the Amazon.
