Climate change boosts risk of extreme wildfires 25%: study

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Climate change has sharply boosted the risk of fast-spreading wildfires, according to a Californian study published Wednesday that offers lessons for prevention after recent disasters in Canada, Greece and Hawaii.

Scientists at the Breakthrough Institute, a non-profit research center, found that human-caused warming increased the frequency of "Extreme" wildfires by 25 percent on average compared to the pre-industrial era, in a study in the journal Nature.

A 2022 United Nations Environment Programme report on wildfires said they are becoming more common due to hotter, dryer conditions caused by climate change, including in regions not traditionally prone to them.