From Wildfire Risk to Resilience The Investment Case for Action 2026

Recent global wildfire data tells a paradoxical story, as area burned has decreased in some regions since the early 2000s,19 while extreme fires are intensifying. In 2024, record global forest loss was recorded, with severe impacts in Brazil, the Congo Basin (including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and boreal forests such as Canada and Russia.20 In 2025, the largest burned areas were concentrated in parts of Sub- Saharan Africa, South America and Australia, with widespread burning also experienced across boreal regions (Canada and Russia) and parts of the western US (Figure 1). Europe also experienced exceptionally high wildfire activity in 2025, with Portugal and Spain among the most affected, impacting parts of the western Iberian Peninsula – where fires exceeded 5,000 hectares – and the Mediterranean basin.21Wildfire risk is rising due to the combined effects of hotter, drier conditions that lengthen fire seasons and dry fuels, and human factors such as expansion of the wildland-urban interface (WUI), ignition sources (e.g. power lines, and land/forest management practices. Fire seasons in regions of the western US, Mexico, Brazil and East Africa have increased by over a month compared to 35 years ago.22,23 Wildfires also emit significant amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) and can weaken land carbon sinks. The World Meteorological Organization noted wildfire-related emissions and reduced sink uptake as key contributors to the large increase in global CO2 emissions between 2023 and 2024.24,25 Drier conditions caused by climate change, in turn, lead to elevated fire risk, contributing to a fire–climate reinforcing feedback loop. Fires and the climate feedback loop FIGURE 2 Increasing carbon emissions fuel climate change and drive hotter and drier conditions Larger areas burn as fire seasons get longer and fires are more frequent and intenseHotter, drier conditions dry out forests and make them more prone to firesCarbon emissions from fires increase as larger areas burn Source: Thayer, K. & MacCarthy, J. (2025). 5 Graphics Explain the Climate-Fire Feedback Loop. World Resources Institute. https://www.wri.org/insights/climate-fire-feedback-loop-explained. From Wildfire Risk to Resilience: The Investment Case for Action 6