Indonesian fire emissions hit 19.7 million tons and lead the world this week

Fire emissions from Indonesia between 1 and 7 September reached 19.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, overtaking Russia and accounting for more than a third of the global fire total, according to Fire Emissions Watch, a Copernicus Climate Change Service portal.

Emission intensity in that week exceeded 1,500 kilograms per square kilometre, more than ten times the Russian figure. The highest concentrations sat in Kalimantan, on the Indonesian side of Borneo, and in eastern Sumatra. The week's total was 273 percent above the seasonal average. It was still below the 21.7 million tons recorded in the same week of 2015, the last comparable super-El Niño fire season.

Authorities describe 2026 as the most intense Indonesian fire year in eleven years. Peat and forest in both islands have been dry enough that small ignitions run. Pontianak in West Kalimantan logged an air quality index of 394 on Wednesday on IQAir's scale, a level that keeps children and older people indoors.

Why peat changes the count

Indonesia's fire problem is not only canopy. Drained peat holds carbon in wet soil. Once that soil dries and lights, it smoulders for days and feeds a haze that crosses the Strait of Malacca. Copernicus measures the carbon leaving those burns. The intensity figure, 1,500 kilograms per square kilometre, is the part that separates this week from an ordinary dry-season blaze in Russia or Canada.

August already set a national monthly fire-emission record in the Copernicus series that starts in 2003 and made Asia the highest regional total that month even as the global fire total sat slightly below average. September's first week then pushed Indonesia past Russia on the weekly table.

Japan has sent Chinook helicopters and about 180 personnel to help with suppression, Indonesian outlets reported this week. Local agencies have been cutting firebreaks and wetting peat canals. Those tactics work when there is water in the canals. In a super-El Niño year the canals themselves run low.

What 2015 still teaches

The 2015 season put Indonesian fire emissions into global climate accounts and shut schools across Sumatra and Kalimantan. Singapore and parts of Malaysia spent weeks under haze. The 19.7 million ton week is not yet that event. It is close enough that health ministries in the three countries are watching daily AQI rather than weekly averages.

Palm and pulp concessions sit on much of the peat that is burning. Indonesia has rules against clearing peat and against using fire. Enforcement in a dry year is a race against ignition. The Copernicus numbers do not assign blame to a company. They do show that the country's fire carbon is now the largest single national line in the global weekly table.

For readers who already know the haze cycle, the new figure is the intensity ratio. Ten times Russia's per-area emissions in the same week is the measure that tells a climate desk this is peat, not just forest. The next test is whether the second week of September stays under the 2015 mark or crosses it. If it crosses, the 11-year comparison stops being a comfort.