Fire plays an important role in the earth system. Carbon emissions from fires affect the global carbon budget and consequently climate change. Biome-specific qualities such as vegetation, climate and human land-use change are altering long-term trends in carbon emissions from fires. Whilst some biomes and continents seem to witness increasing fire-derived carbon emissions, others see decreasing trends. Yet, currently a biome-wide perspective on fire-derived carbon emission trends is lacking. We used total carbon emissions from the Global Fire Emissions Database (version 4 with small fires) to investigate the spatial and temporal dynamics of fire emissions from 2001 to 2019 across the world. While the global trend for fire emissions stayed relatively unchanged (non-significant trend), this was due to contrasting trends in two geographical biomes. Specifically, a decreasing trend in tropical savannas and grasslands, notably across the African continent and an increasing trend in boreal forests, especially a dense cluster in the east Siberian taiga in Boreal Asia. The decrease in emissions in African savannas and grasslands was driven by a decline in vegetation, and thus fuel, and an increase in anthropogenic intervention, especially agricultural expansion. Increase in fire emissions from boreal forests in Boreal Asia was driven by agricultural activities and climate change towards a drier climate (e.g., lower humidity). For many biomes, fire-derived carbon emissions are driven by several anthropogenic activities, vegetation and climate drivers, likely due to the complex feedback governing emissions. This global and biome-wide study highlights that anthropogenic activities in relatively small regions can shape global fire-derived carbon emission trends. Monitoring and management interventions are needed to address increasing fire-derived carbon emission areas, particularly the east Siberian taiga, and other forested biomes where deforestation contributes to rising carbon emission trends.