2025 Study: 335 M ha Burned, Fires Hit Wealthy Areas
Get the Energy newsletter
Daily energy & climate — solar, EVs, oil, the policy fights and tech bets shaping the transition. Free.
- Matthew Jones said that 2025 showed a "quiet" fire year globally can still be devastating, highlighting the growing disconnect between total area burned and real‑world impacts.
- University of East Anglia reported that 335 million hectares burned in 2025, the second‑lowest total since 2002, largely due to fragmented African farms limiting savannah fire spread.
- South Korea experienced its biggest and deadliest wildfire season on record in 2025, with high winds and dry vegetation driving fires through densely populated areas, causing exceptional mortality, mass evacuations, and major infrastructure losses.
- California faced the Palisades and Eaton fires, among the most destructive in U.S. history, while a Scottish megafire burned over 100,000 ha, contributing to the UK’s record‑breaking burned area.
- David Garcia noted that extreme weather, fueled by carbon pollution, makes vegetation drier and wind conditions stronger, increasing the likelihood of large fires, and an attribution study he co‑authored found the extreme weather in Portugal and Spain 39 times more likely due to climate breakdown.
- Canada recorded extreme wildfire emissions for the third consecutive year, with boreal forests emitting close to 4 billion tonnes of CO₂ since 2023, exceeding the total emissions of the preceding 15‑year period.
- Adrián Regos warned that a small number of extreme fires dominate ecological, social, and economic consequences, emphasizing the need to boost resilience of landscapes and communities, not just reduce fire counts.
Why it matters: Insurance firms and densely populated communities lose billions as the study shows that a modest total burned area can still generate over a third of weather‑related insured losses, while climate‑driven extreme conditions threaten infrastructure, public health, and carbon‑budget goals for governments and insurers alike.
