Why Britain is breathing the world’s wildfire smoke

Scientists say global blazes account for 10% of UK’s particle pollution – and climate crisis could make the problem worse.

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Researchers at the University of Edinburgh and UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology have been tracking wildfire smoke reaching Britain. They found that wildfires – including some thousands of miles away – account for about 10% of the UK’s particle pollution.

Damaris Tan, at the University of Edinburgh, created a computer simulation of global wildfires and agricultural burning. She said: “While wildfires may not impact air pollution in the UK as acutely as other countries, wildfires globally add to the UK population’s long-term health burden. The relative importance of this is likely to increase in the future.”

The study found that large fires anywhere in the northern hemisphere could increase UK air pollution. “Time lags on the scale of months are possible,” Tan said. “It depends on the location of the wildfires relative to the UK and the meteorology, but it took over three months for the effects of 2018 wildfires to become negligible to 2019 concentrations in the UK.”

Prof Mathew Heal, at the University of Edinburgh and part of the study team, said: “To meet legal targets for particle pollution, the UK may need to over-deliver on the emission reductions to allow for the potential of increased wildfires in the future.”

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