Northern forests released a record amount of carbon dioxide in 2021

Almost half a billion tonnes of carbon were released from North American and Russian boreal forests in 2021, a record high and more than double the amount they emitted in 2020.

Boreal forests are high-latitude forests spanning much of Canada and Russia. They make up around a quarter of the world’s forests and store large amounts of carbon in their trees and soil.

They typically account for about 10 per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions from fires, but heatwaves in …