Europe's record 2022 wildfires sent carbon emissions soaring, monitors say

Firefighters operate at the site of a wildfire in Pumarejo de Tera near Zamora, northern Spain, on June 18, 2022. AFP - CESAR MANSO

Wildfires that scorched across Europe this year burned a record land area and stoked carbon emissions, according to an update released by Europe's forest fire and satellite monitors.

The summer of 2022 was the hottest in Europe's recorded history. The continent suffered blistering heatwaves and the worst drought in centuries, as climate change drives ever longer and stronger hot spells.