Wildfires above the Arctic Circle in June have unleashed carbon emissions that are the third highest for the time of year in two decades of monitoring, European scientists said on Thursday (June 27).

As climate change raises Arctic temperatures, wildfires have shifted north where they blaze through boreal forest and tundra, releasing vast amounts of greenhouse gases from carbon-rich organic soils.

The latest data from European Union's Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service (CAMS) showed some 6.8 megatonnes of carbon have been released this month, only less than in June 2019 and June 2020, which saw roughly double the emissions.

The majority of fires are burning in the Sakha Republic in Russia's Far North. This region experienced extensive wildfires in 2021, with nearly 19 million hectares of forests destroyed. The northeastern Arctic has experienced the largest increase in extreme wildfires over the last two decades.

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