Climate change brings serious risks to our economy, society, and environment, and across North America, we’re witnessing these dangers firsthand through increasingly destructive wildfires.
The growing risk of wildfires
Globally, the wildfire season is growing, lasting longer throughout the year. Compared to 35 years ago, wildfire season now stretches about a month longer, on average, across parts of North America, South America, and Africa. As a result, between 2001 and 2023, carbon dioxide emissions from wildfires also jumped by 60% worldwide, with the steepest increases in northern boreal forests, where conditions have become hotter and drier than usual.
Canada felt this impact dramatically in 2023, when exceptionally warm temperatures and drought made it the worst wildfire year on record. Over 6,000 fires scorched an estimated 15 million hectares — an area larger than England. This dwarfed the typical annual average of 2.5 million hectares burned, and the outlook for 2025 suggests elevated wildfire risk will continue across parts of the country, with 3.7 million hectares already burned since January.
These wildfires exact a heavy social and economic toll, and threaten to permanently alter landscapes, especially if forests don’t get enough time to recover between wildfires. Given the visible nature of the problem, it is no surprise that the recent G7 meeting in Alberta focused, in part, on how member nations can better support one another in reducing wildfire risks and improving response efforts. These discussions led to a formal agreement called the Kananaskis Wildfire Charter.
New wildfire mitigation strategies are required
This new reality means we need to tackle both the root causes of climate change, while also adopting smart wildfire prevention strategies. These could include controlled burns, updated forest management practices, and creating protective barriers by reducing combustible materials around communities, homes, and critical infrastructure.
As part of the Wildfire Charter initiatives, it makes sense to pursue technologies that remove carbon from the atmosphere, tackling one of the root causes of the problem. One promising dual-purpose strategy involves using high-risk forest materials as inputs for bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) and biomass carbon removal and storage (BiCRS) projects. Both technologies have the potential to remove multiple gigatons of carbon annually while simultaneously reducing wildfire fuel loads.
BECCS projects take plant biomass and organic waste to produce electricity, heat, or fuels, then capture the resulting CO2 emissions for storage or reuse.
BiCRS projects use similar materials for non-energy purposes — this might involve burying biomass underground, converting it into products like biochar that can improve soil health, or bio-oil that can be stored underground. Using sustainable biomass sources is crucial for maximizing the environmental benefits of these projects, and guidelines and certifications exist to help developers make responsible sourcing decisions.
How policy can encourage risk-reduction solutions
The Canadian carbon removal sector has a real opportunity to contribute to wildfire prevention through BECCS and BiCRS projects if we can create the right policy conditions.
Research indicates that roughly one-third of Canada’s forested regions face high fire risk, with another 6% classified as very high risk. In addition, 94% of Canada’s forests are publicly owned, and about 30% remain unmanaged. This presents targeted opportunities for carbon removal developers to focus on sustainably sourcing high-risk biomass from Canada’s extensive forestry areas.
Today, Parks Canada, in particular, has already been active, coordinating 29 wildfire risk reduction projects across 17 parks and sites in 2023, including prescribed burns and fuel breaks. Given the size of the problem that still needs to be addressed on an annual basis, there is significant potential for the private sector to contribute through the deployment of these technologies. This could deliver the dual benefits of wildfire risk reduction and carbon removal.
Decision makers elsewhere have already noted the need for these technologies and are taking action to incentivize their growth. In June 2025, the U.S. Senate introduced the Wildfire Reduction and Carbon Removal Act of 2025, which would create tax credits for using forest residues from wildfire hazard reduction or ecological restoration in BiCRS projects. The credits would be worth USD$180 or USD$60 per metric ton of carbon stored for at least 1,000 years or 100 years, respectively. Other policy incentives and actions that could support such projects include carbon contracts for difference to backstop the market value of carbon credits in compliance systems, direct procurement of credits through government programs including the Low-carbon Fuel Procurement Program in Canada, and an expanded focus on active forest management that includes industry partnerships and dedicated offtakes for biomass supply.
If Canada is serious about using all the tools at its disposal to deal with its wildfire problem, these technologies, and the policies that incentivize them, cannot be overlooked.
