Australia’s catastrophic summer bushfires spewed around 900 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere – roughly the equivalent of a year’s worth of emissions from commercial aircraft worldwide.

That’s the summary from the Climate Council, which says the severity and frequency of extreme weather events such as bushfires and smoke, heatwaves, floods, hailstorms and drought will continue to increase in coming decades due to greenhouse gas emissions already emitted, and those we continue to emit.

“Climate change fuelled the unprecedented fires,” Climate Councillor and former Fire and Rescue NSW Commissioner of Greg Mullins says in a statement.

“The bushfire season was the worst on record for NSW in terms of the scale of the bushfires, the number of properties lost and the amount of area burned.”

Tourism industry losses from the bushfires are expected to reach at least $4.5 billion. More than 23,000 bushfire-related insurance claims were lodged, with an estimated value of $1.9 billion.

Fellow Climate Councillor Will Steffen says it is important to note the recent fires took place in a world that has warmed by just over one degree.

“We must do our fair share in urgently reducing our greenhouse gas emissions,” Professor Steffen says. “If we do not, we will be helping to push the world further towards a disastrous three-degree [warmer] climate.”