“According to estimation, the average annual emission of carbon dioxide caused by forest fires in China from 2000-2021 was approximately 15 million tons, only account for 0.2 percent of the global forest fire emissions, demonstrating China's responsible role as a major country. "On July 27, China’s state-run newspaper Global Times criticized Canada’s handling of its wildfires, which the paper said caused “immeasurable” damage to the global environment.
The main reason for China topping the list of the world’s largest CO2 emitters is its reliance on coal.and begin cutting its use starting in 2026 and thereby bring China’s CO2 emissions to a peak before 2030. A truck transports coal at a coal-fired power plant in Shenyang, Liaoning province, China September 29, 2021.
Western scientists see wildfires as a natural part of the ecosystem, meaning wildfires are usually left to burn if they are not having an impact on human lives or property. In China, local authorities will usually send firefighters to put out any fire, even if it’s happening in a very remote place. While Polygraph.info could not verify Global Times’ assertion that forest fires in China account for only 0.2% of global forest fire emissions, James MacCarthy, a research associate with Global Forest Watch, an open-source web application to monitor global forests in near real-time, told Polygraph.info that the newspaper’s estimate seems plausible.