The Amazon’s worst fire season in decades is turning the rainforest into a massive carbon emitter.
A new analysis from scientists at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre shows that the Amazon rainforest has experienced its worst fire season in more than 20 years. The extreme fires drove unprecedented levels of carbon pollution and revealed how vulnerable the ecosystem has become, even as overall deforestation rates have slowed. During 2024, fires released an estimated 791 million tons of carbon dioxide, an amount comparable to Germany’s total annual emissions. That figure is about seven times higher than the average recorded over the previous two years.
According to findings published in Biogeosciences, fires damaged roughly 3.3 million hectares of Amazon forest in 2024 alone. Researchers link this dramatic increase to intense drought conditions worsened by climate change, growing forest fragmentation, and poor land management practices (e.g., escape fires or criminal fires by land grabbers). Together, these factors have accelerated forest degradation. For the first time in records covering 2022–2024, damage caused by fire surpassed deforestation as the leading source of carbon emissions in the Amazon.
Satellites Reveal Hidden Fire Damage
The study relied on advanced satellite techniques designed to overcome gaps in earlier global fire datasets. Scientists combined observations from the Tropical Moist Forest monitoring system with data from the Global Wildfire Information System. By carefully removing false signals from agricultural burning and cloud interference, the team was able to identify and confirm fire-related forest damage with far greater accuracy than before.
