Burning: incineration, open burning, flaring, fires
71 cases in 39 countries, 1971–2026. Most cases: United States (10), Iran (9), Russia (9), Kazakhstan (8), China (5).
Eight winners named in Indonesia's waste-to-energy tenders, including Chandra Asri unit
Winners of Indonesia's waste-to-energy (PSEL) tenders, announced in July 2026, include a unit of petrochemical maker Chandra Asri and a subsidiary of state oil company Pertamina. At stake for nature is how much waste these plants will burn; the cited sources do not give the tariff or the length of public payment commitments.
Strikes on Iranian oil and gas facilities, June 2025 and March 2026, and damage at Qatar's Ras Laffan
CEOBS described fires and damage at the Tehran refinery, South Pars Phase 14 and the Fajr Jam gas plant in June 2025. On 18 March 2026 Iranian state media reported strikes on South Pars gas plants at Asaluyeh, and QatarEnergy later estimated a roughly USD 20bn annual revenue loss from damage at Ras Laffan.
Strikes on Tehran fuel depots, March 2026: smoke, black rain and Iran's "ecocide" claim
Four fuel depots in and near Tehran were attacked on 7 March 2026; Israel's military said it targeted fuel storage complexes belonging to the IRGC. Satellite imagery showed plumes and destroyed tanks, UNEP and WHO warned of inhaled smoke and black, acidic rain, and Iran called the strikes "ecocide".
Addis Ababa's Reppie waste-to-energy plant reported at half capacity
Ethiopia's Reppie incineration plant in Addis Ababa is reported to run at half its capacity, and GAIA said it processes 396 to 650 tonnes a day against a 1,400-tonne design. At stake for nature is whether burning waste at Reppie reduces what goes to the Koshe dump.
Indian government paid Rs 126 crore to incinerate Union Carbide Bhopal waste
The Indian government paid Ramky Group Rs 126 crore to incinerate 336 tonnes of toxic waste from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, according to The Hitavada. The report names no payment by Dow or Union Carbide.
Indonesia waste-to-energy (PSEL) tariff and Danantara
In 2025 Indonesia replaced the fee municipalities paid waste-to-energy plants with a 30-year electricity tariff of 20 US cents per kWh. In 2026 the Danantara investment fund selected operators, and the environmental group WALHI objected.
White phosphorus fires burned farmland across southern Lebanon
Al Majalla reported that white phosphorus caused 812 fires and burned 2.4 million m2 of farmland in southern Lebanon. The cited sources do not describe soil or wildlife effects.
Karaturun well blowout and methane release (Mangystau, 2023)
A gas-water blowout at well No. 303 at the Karaturun field on 9 June 2023 ignited and burned for about 200 days. A study (preprint) estimated 128 ± 36 kt of methane released; Buzachi Neft paid environmental fines and was ordered by an Almaty court to pay KZT 2.27 billion for the burned gas.
Semey Ormany forest fire, Kazakhstan
A fire burned part of the Semey Ormany pine reserve in Abai region, Kazakhstan, from 8 June to 13 July 2023; 14 employees of the reserve died. Courts convicted four people in 2024, and the Ministry of Ecology valued the damage at more than KZT 165 billion.
Al-Jaili refinery fires and wartime damage in Khartoum, 2023–2025
Repeated fires and strikes damaged the Al-Jaili refinery north of Khartoum, Sudan's largest, jointly owned by the Sudanese government and CNPC. The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) each attributed the January 2025 fire to the other; AP wrote that neither side offered evidence.
Verra plastic credits
A report for Fauna & Flora found that 228 of the 10,146 plastic credits issued under Verra’s Plastic Waste Reduction Standard (2.2%) had been retired by July 2024. Verra accepts incineration with energy recovery and cement-kiln co-processing as end-of-life treatment.
War-related greenhouse-gas emissions and Ukraine’s planned climate damage claim
The Initiative on GHG Accounting of War (IGGAW) put war-related emissions at 311.4 MtCO2e for 24 February 2022 to 23 February 2026 and priced them at USD 185 per tonne. Ukraine’s ministry has said it will file a climate damage claim against Russia in the Register of Damage; no filing is on record.
Fuel-depot fires at Kalynivka, Kriachky and Lutsk, 2022
Fires at three Ukrainian fuel depots in February and March 2022 were measured by CEOBS, Zoï and UNEP and valued by the State Environmental Inspectorate; for the Kriachky depot the Inspectorate calculated damage of UAH 930 million.
Wildfires in Ukraine's war zone and on the Kinburn Spit, 2022–2025
Satellite-based counts put the area burned in Ukraine at about 500,000 ha in 2022, 226,000 ha in 2023, 965,000 ha in 2024 and 660,000 ha in 2025, with fires concentrated along the front line. On the Kinburn Spit, under occupation, the Ministry of Environmental Protection reported over 5,000 ha of a national park affected by 131 fires by 11 May 2023.
Sviati Hory National Nature Park, Donetsk Oblast, 2022–
Ukraine's Ministry of Environmental Protection stated on 2 August 2024 that the war had destroyed about 80% of the forest plantings of Sviati Hory National Nature Park, that about 9,500 ha of forest had been burned, and that its preliminary damage estimate was UAH 16 billion.
Chornobyl Exclusion Zone: Russian occupation of 2022 and fires, 2022–2026
Russian forces held the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone from 24 February 2022 until the end of March 2022. Ukrainian agencies reported looted laboratories and lost machinery, and a peer-reviewed satellite study found about 70 km² burned in March 2022; further fires followed in 2024 and 2026.
New Mexico prescribed burn in 2022 became the state's largest fire
A US Forest Service prescribed burn in New Mexico became the largest fire in the state's history in 2022, according to a review reported by Source NM. The review says 99.84 percent of prescribed burns follow their plan; the cited sources give no acreage or ecological damage figures.
Philippines reports 55.98% plastic recovery under EPR, including co-processing
The Philippine Environment Ministry reported plastic recovery of 55.98% under its producer responsibility scheme, a figure that counts co-processing as recovery. The sources say the share of plastic that is burned is not disclosed, and only 1,017 of 2,130 firms were registered.
US PACT Act: $281.5bn for veterans exposed to burn pits, none for Iraqi civilians
The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the US PACT Act would cost about $281.5 billion through 2031 for veterans exposed to burn pit smoke. The cited sources report no compensation mechanism for Iraqi civilians exposed to the same smoke.
Holcim Geocycle and brand-cement plastic co-processing
Holcim's waste unit Geocycle burns plastic and other waste as fuel in cement kilns, and Holcim describes the material it processes as recycled. Reuters reported in 2021 that the plant partnerships with consumer brands were growing, and that the US Environmental Protection Agency had found no meaningful climate benefit from burning plastic instead of coal in kilns.
Yakutia wildfire season of 2021: burned area and emissions
Fires in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) burned a total area of 9.4 million ha in 2021, the largest in almost four decades of satellite observation, according to Avialesookhrana figures cited in a peer-reviewed paper. Copernicus CAMS estimated that Sakha and Chukotka fires released 806 of Russia’s 970 megatonnes of CO2 from June to August.
BP and Eni do not declare gas flared at Iraq's Rumaila field, citing non-operator status
BP and Eni say they are not operators at Rumaila and do not declare the gas flared there, a site one source calls the world's most gas-flared. The cited sources do not quantify the flaring or its effect on climate or health.
Dow to cut air pollution at four US chemical plants under Clean Air Act settlement
A January 2021 Clean Air Act settlement covers flaring at four Dow plants in Texas and Louisiana. It includes about $294M in pollution controls; the cited sources do not say what the flaring released.
Accra's Agbogbloshie scrap market demolished in July 2021
The Agbogbloshie scrap market in Accra was demolished in July 2021, displacing between 4,000 and 10,000 scrap dealers. Record dioxin levels in local eggs, reported in 2019, show the contamination at stake for nature.
California forest offsets buffer pool and wildfire
California's forest offsets programme sets aside credits in a buffer pool to cover losses such as fire. Researchers estimate that fires have used up almost 40% of the pool, against 20% allocated for 100 years of fire risk.
Plastic credits and Philippines PCX
Plastic credits are sold by registries including Verra and the Philippines-based Plastic Credit Exchange. Investigations found that most plastic collected under the Philippine scheme went to cement kilns, and that Nestlé Philippines spent all of $732,900 on credits from burning.
Smelter emissions in Kazakhstan: fines and investment pledges at Kazzinc, Kazakhmys and ERG
Regulators fined metallurgical plants of Kazzinc, Kazakhmys and the ERG group in East Kazakhstan, Karaganda and Pavlodar regions between 2020 and 2026, while the operators announced environmental investment programmes, including more than KZT 108 billion at Kazzinc and KZT 128 billion for ERG's transition to best available techniques.
Mazut burning in Iranian power plants, 2020–2025
When gas runs short in winter, Iranian power plants burn mazut, a high-sulfur heavy fuel oil. The Ministry of Petroleum reported 4.941 billion litres delivered to power plants between 22 October 2024 and 31 January 2025, up 53% on the year before; the head of the Tehran Province Judiciary said five former managers were convicted over non-enforcement of the Clean Air Law.
Most Nestlé Philippines 'plastic neutral' credits burned in cement kilns
Nestlé Philippines' 'plastic neutral' claim relied on plastic credits, 86% of which were burned in cement kilns, according to Source Material. At stake for nature is whether such offsets remove any plastic from the environment.
Wildfires have consumed almost 40% of California's forest offset buffer pool
CarbonPlan estimates that wildfire has consumed almost 40% of the buffer pool behind California's forest carbon offsets, against 20% allocated for fire over 100 years. The state's Air Resources Board replaces burned credits from the pool, and buyers are not charged.
Alter do Chão and Dia do Fogo fire allegations
After the 2019 Amazon fires in Brazil, an allegation circulated that NGOs had set fires to attract donations. The Federal Police found no culprit among them. Two investigations into the separate "Dia do Fogo" were closed in 2024 without an indictment.
Russian forest-climate projects: RUSAL fire-protection units and Sakhalin larch planting
RUSAL Krasnoyarsk's aerial fire-protection project on 504,986 hectares earned Russian carbon units, and units from it were sold to a UAE fund in October 2024 in the first foreign transaction in Russia's registry. Registry operator, forestry agency and scientists have questioned forest-project quality in general, and one registered project plans to plant larch on bogs on Sakhalin.
Siberian wildfire season of 2019: Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk and Yakutia
In July and August 2019 fires burned across Krasnoyarsk Krai, Irkutsk Oblast and Yakutia while regional authorities left most of the burning area unfought under the control-zone rule. The Accounts Chamber later gave 10 million ha burned and RUB 13.5bn in reported damage for the year.
Buzachi Operating: KZT 8.4 billion for gas losses and unauthorised flaring (Mangystau, 2025)
Courts ordered Buzachi Operating Ltd, the operator of the North Buzachi field, to pay KZT 8.4 billion to the state for six years of oil and gas losses and flaring of raw gas without permission; the sum was paid in full in March 2025. In May 2026 the company was fined KZT 474 million for exceeding the hazardous-waste accumulation limit by 513.2 tonnes during drilling.
Bolivia's decree 3973 allowed forest clearing and controlled burns before 2024 fires
Decree 3973 permitted forest clearing and 'controlled burning' in Santa Cruz and Beni. Bolivia recorded about 12.86 million hectares of fire in 2024, 8.5 million of them in Santa Cruz, and the forests of those departments are at stake.
RWE sought €1.4bn from the Netherlands over its coal phase-out
RWE brought an investment-treaty claim for €1.4bn over the Dutch ban on coal power from 2030 and withdrew it in 2023. Germany agreed €2.6bn of early lignite closure compensation for RWE; for nature, the question is whether such claims and payments slow the closure of fossil capacity.
2019–20 bushfires burned 88,000 ha of mountain ash forest again
Australia's 2019–20 Black Summer fires burned about 24 million hectares. Mountain ash forests, which regenerate from seed, burned again over 88,000 hectares, and aircraft scattered about 4.5 tonnes of seed in 2020.
Malaysia imported plastic waste crisis (Jenjarom)
After China largely closed its doors to plastic waste in January 2018, imports into Malaysia rose and unlicensed plastic-burning plants opened around Jenjarom. In January 2020 Malaysia sent 150 containers back to 13 countries.
Tukolon reserve sanitary logging conviction in Irkutsk Oblast
In May 2022 the Kirovsky District Court of Irkutsk convicted four former officials, including the former regional forestry minister, over a 2018 clear-felling of about 120 ha of relict forest in the Tukolon regional reserve. The cut had been justified as sanitary logging of pest- and fire-damaged forest.
Sanchi tanker collision and condensate spill, East China Sea, 2018
On 6 January 2018 the Panama-flagged tanker Sanchi, carrying 136,000 tonnes of condensate loaded at Assaluyeh, collided with the Hong Kong-registered bulk carrier CF Crystal in the East China Sea, burned and sank on 14 January; three crew died and 29 were missing. The spokesperson of the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) said in January 2019 that insurers had paid US$50 million of US$256 million in claims.
PG&E wildfire settlement, tax deduction and Fire Victim Trust
After the 2018 Camp Fire, PG&E pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter, settled with the California regulator for about US$1.8 billion and funded a victims' trust about half in its own stock. California customers fund half of a state wildfire fund.
Deliver-or-pay waste incinerator contract (Pietrasanta, Italy)
A waste-to-energy plant contract in Italy required a minimum of 10,000 tonnes a year. When separate collection rose and deliveries fell below it, the operator asked for €13 million and the municipalities paid €5 million.
Methane super-emitters in Turkmenistan's oil and gas fields
Satellite studies between 2022 and 2026 recorded repeated large methane plumes over Turkmenistan's oil and gas fields. Turkmenistan joined the Global Methane Pledge in December 2023, and in August 2026 UNEP confirmed 8 stopped leaks.
Almaty CHP-2 coal-to-gas conversion, Kazakhstan
Almaty's coal-fired combined heat and power plant CHP-2 is being converted to gas with loans from the EBRD and the Asian Development Bank; the cost estimate rose from KZT 98 billion to KZT 388 billion. The state hydrometeorological service and independent monitors report different air-quality trends for the city.
Hefty EnergyBag plastic marketed as recycling was burned in cement kilns
Dow and Keep America Beautiful marketed the Hefty EnergyBag programme as recycling, Plastics Today reported. Plastic collected in Omaha was burned in a cement kiln, which puts in question whether collected plastic was recycled.
Nornickel Sulphur Programme: SO2 targets, spending and measured emissions at Norilsk and Kola
Nornickel has published successive SO2 reduction targets and investment totals for its Norilsk and Kola smelters since 2015. Company-reported Norilsk emissions were 1,146 kt in 2025 against 1,854 kt in 2015; NASA's satellite catalogue lists different values for the same years.
Russia's forest-fire control zones and federal fire-service funding
Since 2015 Russian rules have let regional commissions stop or suspend suppression of forest fires in designated control zones when forecast suppression costs exceed forecast harm. The Accounts Chamber put the zones at 534.4 million ha in 2020 and found burned area up 2.2 times and reported damage down 3 times between 2017 and 2021.
Hyrcanian forests logging moratorium: announced budgets, partial allocation and the 2025 Elit fire
Iran halted commercial logging in its northern Hyrcanian forests from late 2016 and wrote the ban into the Sixth Development Plan in January 2017. Officials announced budgets and a compensation credit; the amounts actually paid to forestry-plan operators are not on record, and a wildfire in November 2025 drew a CHF 500,000 IFRC allocation.
Swedish incinerator fly ash dumped on Langøya island in Norway
Swedish fly ash from waste incineration has been dumped on Langøya, an island in the Oslofjord in Norway, and chloride from it reaches the fjord, The Local reported. The cited sources give no measurement of the fjord or the island.
Lebanon's garbage piled up after Naameh landfill closed in 2015
After the Naameh landfill closed in 2015, garbage collection stopped in Lebanon and open burning of waste spread to more than 150 sites, Arab News reported. Open burning puts public health at risk.
Ocean Conservancy withdraws 2015 plastic incineration recommendation
Ocean Conservancy withdrew and apologised in 2022 for the incineration recommendation in its influential 2015 report, which Coca-Cola, Dow and the American Chemistry Council helped fund. The cited sources do not show what replaced the recommendation.
Oil-facility fires and leaks in Libya's conflict: Es Sider, Ras Lanuf, Zawiya
Libya's National Oil Corporation and Reuters reported fires at oil storage tanks at Es Sider and Ras Lanuf in 2014–2018 and gunfire damage, a pipeline leak and drone-attack fires at Zawiya in 2024–2026. A 2026 study of Zawiya refinery sampling reported hydrocarbon concentrations of up to 43 mg/L offshore.
Kashagan gas flaring: KZT 134.2 billion damage order (2014) and KZT 3.6 billion award (2025)
After pipeline leaks in September–October 2013, the Atyrau Department of Ecology ordered the Kashagan operator and Agip KCO to pay KZT 134.2 billion for gas flaring; three court levels upheld the order in 2014, and a confidential December 2014 agreement followed. A separate 2024 flaring claim was awarded in January 2025 and paid in July 2025.
Embamunaigas sour-gas flaring at the Prorva fields (Atyrau, 2014 and 2018)
The Atyrau environmental department ordered Embamunaigas and RD KMG to pay KZT 37.2 billion in 2014 for flaring sour associated gas at the Prorva fields; after appeals the order was reduced to KZT 1.9 billion. In 2018 a fine of KZT 8.9 billion was cut by a court to KZT 6.68 billion and collected.
Proton-M crash at Baikonur, 2 July 2013: Kazakhstan’s KZT 13.69bn damage claim against Russia
A Proton-M rocket crashed seconds after launch from Baikonur on 2 July 2013 and spilled roughly 600 tons of heptyl, amyl and kerosene. Kazakhstan claimed 13,690,747,305 tenge from Roscosmos; in February 2016 a Kazakh vice-minister said the talks had ended without any sum being determined.
Drax biomass subsidies
The Drax power station in the United Kingdom burns wood pellets that are counted as renewable and subsidised. Ember reported a record subsidy of £999 million for 2025 and £8.72 billion since 2012.
Iran associated-gas flaring and flare-gas recovery contracts
The World Bank's satellite-based estimate of gas flared in Iran was 29.93 billion cubic metres in 2025, against 13.85 billion in 2012. Iran's Ministry of Petroleum has signed several rounds of flare-gas recovery contracts and set a target of ending flaring by 2028; Iran's Supreme Audit Court, as reported, put the annual value of flared gas at more than US$6 billion.
Venezuela gas flaring and methane from oil and gas
The World Bank, the IEA and satellite studies record high flaring intensity and methane emissions from Venezuelan oil and gas operations, mainly in Monagas and around Lake Maracaibo. The World Bank changed its method in June 2026, raising its flare-volume estimates; an NBER paper estimates the climate damage of flaring and venting at about US$11 billion a year.
Sinar Mas/APP fires burned 293,065 hectares; replanting was the recorded sanction
Fires in Indonesia from 2012 to 2024 burned 293,065 hectares linked to Sinar Mas/APP and 150,693 hectares linked to RGE/APRIL. The cited sources list replanting as the sanction and do not show how much forest was restored.
EU woody biomass and Enviva pellets
In the EU, wood pellets count towards renewable-energy targets, and the UK emissions trading system applies the EU rule that biomass has a zero emission factor. The UK power station Drax received £8.72 billion in subsidy in 2012–2025, and its US pellet supplier Enviva went through bankruptcy in 2024.
Ulaanbaatar winter air pollution: stove programmes, the 2019 raw-coal ban and subsidised briquettes
Donor and state programmes in Ulaanbaatar's ger districts since 2008 paid for stove subsidies, loans and, from May 2019, a household raw-coal ban with subsidised briquettes made by a state-owned producer. The Auditor General sent findings on the producer's financing to prosecutors in April 2024.
Hoor al-Azim wetland, oil-field development and dikes in Khuzestan
Parts of the Iranian side of the transboundary Hawizeh marshes in Khuzestan were enclosed by dikes and roads around the Azadegan and Yadavaran oil fields. Reuters quoted Iran's oil minister in 2025 as saying "We are the ones who dried up the wetland"; no compensation or restoration budget specific to the wetland is on record.
HFC-23 destruction credits under the CDM (China, India)
The UN Clean Development Mechanism issued carbon credits for destroying HFC-23, a by-product gas of refrigerant manufacture. Records describe production of the gas rising during crediting and global emissions reaching a record in 2018.
Zagros oak forests: the UNDP/GEF Central Zagros project, its evaluation and the fires of 2024–2026
A UNDP/GEF biodiversity project in Iran's Central Zagros ran from 2005 to 2016 with US$3.69 million of GEF funds; its terminal evaluation found that the goal and objective were not achieved. Fires in the Zagros oak forests continued, with Iran International reporting a fall in the forest organisation's dollar budget between 2021 and 2026.
South Pars and Assaluyeh: sulphur dioxide emissions and the pollution levy
NASA's satellite catalogue lists two sources in the Assaluyeh area at 1,284.4 and 919.6 kt of SO2 in 2025. Industry pays a pollution levy of one percent of sales that municipalities spend; Iran's Department of Environment has filed court cases against refineries and costed a US$1.2 billion improvement document.
Canaima National Park: fire suppression for the Guri catchment, mining pressure and the UNESCO decisions
The state power utility has run a fire suppression programme in Canaima National Park to protect the forests that feed the Guri dam. A Landsat study measured 106,000 hectares burned in 2015–2016, the State Party reported 204 hectares for a later period, and the World Heritage Committee has recorded recurring fires and mining inside the park.
Darvaza gas crater: orders to extinguish the fire, wells drilled, methane measured
The Darvaza gas crater in Turkmenistan's Karakum desert has burned since late 1987 or early 1988, according to a satellite preprint. Turkmenistan's president ordered the fire extinguished in January 2022, Türkmengaz reported combustion falling after wells were drilled in 2024, and a preprint measured continuing methane release.
California forest carbon projects burned (Verra buffer pool)
Wildfires burned forests enrolled in carbon-offset projects in California. Credits for the burned carbon were replaced from the registry's shared buffer pool, which the records reviewed say was largely used up.
Mali fire ban did not end burning and produced conflict
A fire ban in Mali, of colonial origin, did not end fires and produced conflict, a 2008 article reports. The case asks what a fire ban achieves for the landscape it covers.
Singapore's Semakau island landfill, mainly incineration ash, to fill by 2035
Singapore's Semakau landfill receives mainly incineration ash and is expected to be full by 2035. The cited sources do not report its environmental effects, and state that mining its waste for Tuas Port is under study.
Dioxin found in eggs near Lucknow medical waste incinerator
IPEN reported that eggs near a medical waste incinerator in Lucknow, India, contained dioxin at 16 times background and five times the EU limit. The case concerns dioxin contamination of food near incineration.