The 2023 wildfire season in the Europe was among the worst this century, according to a European Commission report published on Wednesday.
Last year, more than half a million (504,002) hectares, an area twice the size of Luxembourg, was scorched by wildfires, according to a report on Forest Fires in Europe, Middle East and North Africa 2023 by the Commission’s Joint Research Centre.
The three worst years this century by the extent of burnt area mapped by the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) were 2017 (988,427 ha), 2022 (837,212 ha) and 2007 (588,388 ha).