Rampant wildfires in the Americas drove a jump in global greenhouse gas emissions from fires in the year to February, new research found Thursday, warning that climate change was fanning the flames.

Infernos that ravaged huge areas of Canada's boreal forest and swept through the dry forests and vulnerable wetlands in South America drove global fire CO2 emissions 10 percent above the 20 year average, the State of Wildfires report found.

That is despite a below-average total of areas burned across the world, the international team of researchers said.

The report found that heat, drought and human activities helped intensify blazes in particularly carbon-rich forests and ecosystems.

"It's the scale and frequency of these extreme events that I find most staggering," said co-author Matthew

See Full Page