Jakarta, ThedailyID — Carbon emissions from Indonesia’s forest and land fires have surged 429% above the seasonal average, as extreme El Niño conditions fuel hotter and drier weather.
According to the European Union’s Copernicus climate monitoring service, fires in Indonesia released 17.1 million tons of carbon emissions over the past seven days. That figure ranks Indonesia second globally behind Russia.
Indonesia also recorded a much higher fire emission intensity. Fires produced around 1,302 kilograms of carbon emissions per square kilometer, compared with 185 kilograms per square kilometer in Russia.
The prolonged fires have sent thick smoke across parts of Indonesia and into neighboring Malaysia. The government has deployed weather modification operations to help suppress fires around major hotspots, particularly in Kalimantan, which has large areas of fire-prone peatland.
El Niño-driven drought has also intensified wildfires across the Northern Hemisphere. Fires have affected parts of North America, Eurasia and the Arctic, worsening air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
Indonesia recorded nearly 95,000 hectares of burned land in July. The country also saw more than 9,000 fire hotspots in August, according to the Ministry of Forestry’s Sipongi monitoring system.
That figure exceeds the 5,077 hotspots recorded in August 2015, although the current situation remains below the record monthly total of 17,302 hotspots recorded in October 2015.
The 2015 fires produced massive carbon emissions and caused severe regional pollution. One study estimated that the resulting pollution contributed to more than 100,000 deaths across Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.
