Arctic in Flames

Understanding the Scale of Arctic Fires

Over the past 20 years, 174 million hectares have burned across the circumpolar North (see map). Many of these fires, some up to a million acres, have gone unresponded to because the areas were considered sparsely inhabited. Yet, not only do communities live on these lands, but their soils also store large amounts of carbon.

"There're 480 gigatons of greenhouse gases stored inside a special kind of permafrost called yedoma, which contains a significant amount of organic material and is underlying much of our Gwich'in homelands and the homelands of many Arctic Indigenous Peoples," Alexander explained. These 480 gigatons are around half of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today. It's enough, Alexander emphasizes, to upset the applecart on this planet. "It's enough to change the way of life of everyone reading this, everyone that you've ever met, and everyone that will ever be on this planet."

Much of the combustion in the Arctic, up to 80-90 percent, is happening below the ground because of these large carbon stores. Once fires have removed trees, shrubs and organic soil, the permafrost lies bare. "It's essentially like opening the top of a cooler," explained Sue Natali, Ecologist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center. "As fires are removing that protective layer, you will often have a much deeper thaw of the permafrost for years to decades to come."

Fires paired with warm summers can have profound compounding impacts on permafrost soils. So much so, that the Arctic tundra has now shifted from storing carbon in the soil to becoming a carbon dioxide source.2 On average, circumpolar wildland fires have emitted 207 million tons of carbon annually since 20033 - equivalent to the annual emissions from over 45 million passenger cars. And, if this trend continues, fire-sourced carbon emissions in high latitude regions could increase two to three times by 2100.

Zooming in on the 2023 record-breaking fire season in Canada, its permafrost region alone emitted 381 million tonnes of carbon and across the whole country up to 640 million metric tons of carbon were released5. According to NASA scientists, this is comparable in magnitude to the annual fossil fuel emissions of a large, industrialized nation.

A Burning Issue for Circumpolar Cooperation

With the Arctic facing ferocious wildfires and the looming threat of more extreme weather, increased lightning activity and drier vegetation7, what role can international forums like the Arctic Council play in addressing this burning issue? Several years ago, this is the question Gwich'in chiefs asked Edward Alexander and so, Gwich'in Council International (GCI) together with other Permanent Participants became a driving force for the Arctic Council's work on wildland fires.

As a result, the Council's Working Groups have put substantial effort into understanding and addressing wildland fires from multiple angles, including monitoring, developing prevention and response strategies, fostering cross-border cooperation, examining climate and health impacts, and integrating Indigenous Knowledge and Local Knowledge for effective fire management.

Yet, as the 2023 fires were raging in Canada and the Council's work was picking up pace after a pause in all official meetings, Morten Høglund, Chair of the Senior Arctic Officials, decided that wildland fires needed to be elevated on the Council's agenda - with immediate effect. Together with his team, he started to prepare the Norwegian Chairship's Wildland Fires Initiative (WFI). With fires being a common concern for all Arctic States, requiring cross-border cooperation, knowledge sharing and partnerships, the WFI quickly emerged as a prime example for the need of circumpolar collaboration.