en
California forest fires. Photo by United States Department of Defence.
25 Feb 2022

UN report calls for radical re-allocating of wildfire resources - less suppression and more prevention

en

The areas which reportedly are most at risk are The Arctic and other remote areas who previously have been less affected by wildfires.

The UN report which was released this week predicts 50 percent more extreme wildfires by the end of this century, and calls for a radical reallocation of financial resources from fighting fires to prevention.

The researchers behind the report say that it is not just the rising temperatures that are to blame for the changes in wildfire risk, but also the way human use land resources. 

According to several international media, including a February 23 article on the CBC, this study claims there will be a global increase in extreme fires of up to 14% by 2030, compared to the number recorded in 2010-2020. The increase could reach 30% by 2050 and 50% by the end of the century.

"The analysis was based on the definition of a catastrophic fire being one that would occur once every 100 years, so it's a very low frequency fire event," said Dr Andrew Sullivan from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Canberra, Australia.

"The result was that the potential for that sort of fire would increase by a factor of 1.3 to 1.5 times, based on global analysis of fire frequency."

The results were similar in a low or high carbon emissions scenario.

 

Read the full UN Report here

 

Photo: Credit: California forest fires. Photo by United States Department of Defence.