Summary The influence of the atmospheric conditions such as the oxygen concentration and its pressure on the spontaneous ignition behaviour of activated carbon was investigated with high pressure DSC (HP-DSC), TG-DTA and SIT (spontaneous ignition test). The onset temperature with HP-DSC lowered with the increase of the oxygen concentration and the onset temperature could be predicted with the oxygen concentration. From the adiabatic self-heating profiles observed by SIT the onset temperature lowered with the increase of the oxygen concentration and the activation energy of induction period of exothermic reaction was determined as 28~39 kJ mol-1.