A more aggressive battle to prevent Alaskan and Canadian wildfires could keep carbon out of the atmosphere at an affordable price.
A new study pegs the cost of keeping one ton of CO2 from an Alaskan wildfire out of the air at $12, less than the cost of abating the same amount of CO2 with a switch from fossil fuels to wind or solar power. The amount of carbon emitted by forest fires in the far north is significant: The study researchers estimate that by 2050, forest fires in Alaska and Canada alone could release approximately 12 gigatons of CO2 each year, roughly totaling the annual emissions of 2.6 billion cars.
Twelve gigatons is also about 3% of the total carbon the globe can emit while still meeting the Paris Agreement’s goal of less than 1.5°C warming by 2050, says Carly Phillips, a researcher in residence at the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions who led the new study...
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