California’s achievement of meeting its 2020 carbon reduction target four years early has been overtaken “several times over” by the emissions produced by the record-breaking wildfires of 2018, according to a report by Beacon Economics for the Next 10 think tank. Had the wildfires been listed against the state’s other polluters, last year’s emissions would have eclipsed the commercial, residential and agricultural sectors, the report claims. However, F. Noel Perry, professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Davis, said carbon from wildfires forms part of the natural cycle and is reabsorbed by re-growing forests.
California’s achievement of meeting its 2020 carbon reduction target four years early has been overtaken “several times over” by the emissions produced by the record-breaking wildfires of 2018, according to a report by Beacon Economics for the Next 10 think tank. Had the wildfires been listed against the state’s other polluters, last year’s emissions would have eclipsed the commercial, residential and agricultural sectors, the report claims. However, Michael Kleeman, professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Davis, said carbon from wildfires forms part of the natural cycle and is reabsorbed by re-growing forests.