Hydropower flow in the Alpine region is “close to an all-time low” amid Europe’s worsening summer drought.
Following back-to-back heatwaves – fuelled by human-caused climate change – and scant rainfall, much of the continent has been left parched. This has increased the likelihood of deadly wildfires that have ravaged countries like France, Spain, Greece and Türkiye, and forced hundreds of thousands to be evacuated.
Fears of food shortages have also hit, as farmers warn that billions of euros of crops have been destroyed in the extreme heat.
According to the Combined Drought Indicator (CDI), in mid-July, alert drought conditions persisted in parts of Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, emerged in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula, and worsened in the southern UK, northern Italy and central Europe – from France and southern Germany to Hungary and Romania, also affecting Switzerland, Austria, Czechia, Slovakia and Serbia.
The dry spell has also impacted Europe’s clean energy mix, as record-low water levels in the Danube river mean that Hungary will power down its Paks nuclear plant, which provides almost half of the country’s electricity, for the first time in nearly half a century.
