Indonesia faces surge in wildfire emissions as El Nino intensifies drought

Indonesia is facing a surge in emissions from wildfires burning through parched stretches of forest and peatland on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, with carbon dioxide readings currently the highest in the world, data has shown.

Fire emissions from Indonesia from September 1 to September 7 reached 19.7 million metric tons, overtaking Russia this week and making up more than a third of the global total, according to Fire Emissions Watch, a portal developed by the European Union’s Copernicus climate monitoring service, on Wednesday.

Indonesia is one of the world’s most fire-prone countries, but as “super-El Nino” weather conditions drive up temperatures and cause punishing droughts, the country is battling what authorities say is its most intense wildfire season in 11 years.

“We do expect to see some fires across the region at this time of year, but with El Nino, it clearly just gives a big enhancement to them,” said Mark Parrington, senior scientist at the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service in Bonn.

“It’s much drier, it’s hotter, and when there’s ignition, these fires burn in a far more extreme way.”

From September 1 to 7, fire emission intensity exceeded 1,500kg/sq km, more than 10 times the Russian level, with the highest concentrations in Kalimantan in Indonesia’s part of Borneo and eastern parts of Sumatra, Copernicus data showed on Wednesday.

Emissions were 273 per cent higher than the seasonal average, though still lower than the 21.7 million tons emitted in the same week of 2015, when Indonesia was battling similarly intense El Nino conditions.

Among the hardest hit areas has been the city of Pontianak in West Kalimantan, where the air quality index was 394 on Wednesday, according to Swiss air quality monitoring firm IQAir. A reading of 300 is considered hazardous.