As Europe experiences the fastest warming of any continent and record-breaking heatwaves, drought has exposed the need to reconsider business practices

International News via Reuters:

Record low water levels in Europe’s major rivers have curtailed the transport of goods, reduced electricity output and shrunk company earnings, stoking fears about the economic impact of searing heat and erratic rainfall.

As Europe experiences the fastest warming of any continent and record-breaking heatwaves, drought has exposed the need to reconsider business practices.

From the bustling port of Rotterdam to hydropower plants in Serbia, waterways have become a less reliable way to transport goods such as grains and oil, or to produce much-needed electricity when millions are seeking to cool their homes. 

“It’s affecting not one region like we’ve seen in the past, but the whole European landscape,” said Alessandro Armenia, a power analyst at commodities data and analytics ​firm Kpler. 

“Given the current dynamics, it means either we’re going to see blackouts or we need to invest way more.”

HYDROPOWER AND NUCLEAR OUTPUT CUT

Production of nuclear power in Hungary and hydropower in Serbia have fallen because of record low water levels along the Danube, which passes through major cities like Vienna, Budapest and Belgrade on its route from Germany to the Black Sea. 

The Paks nuclear power plant, which generates nearly half of Hungary’s electricity, will be shut down on Monday, possibly for weeks because water levels on the river, which supplies cooling water to the facility, are expected to stay too low for it to operate safely. 

At Djerdap 1, Serbia’s largest hydropower plant, output has fallen to 20% of capacity, the plant’s production director Davor Maljokovic told Reuters, as the once broad shipping channel beside it has shrunk to expose sandbanks and gravel bars. 

The lack of water has also disrupted cooling systems at Serbia’s Kostolac coal-fired power plants, forcing them to cut output, Serbia’s state EPS power utility said.

Both Serbia and Hungary say they will make up for the losses by importing electricity, a costly measure when demand on the spot market is high. 

Romania’s state nuclear power producer Nuclearelectrica also had to shut one of its two reactors earlier this week for the same reason, with the second expected to soon follow, potentially depriving the country of a fifth of its electricity needs.

France has also had to reduce nuclear power generation because of low water levels or rising river temperatures.

WATER LEVELS ALSO DISRUPT TRANSPORT

Energy is not the only loser. 

Cezar Gheorghe of Romanian grain market consultancy AGRIColumn told Reuters on Friday farmers along the Danube were having problems shipping their crops because low water levels stopped barges from using several river ports.

“Only the ports which are closer to the Black Sea are still operational. Barges can’t go through the others,” Gheorghe said.

“Crops buyers could offer farmers lower prices and load them in trucks, although there might also be a shortage of trucks.”

Meanwhile, the volume of cargo transported to and from Rotterdam – Europe’s largest sea port – to the Rhine has fallen slightly each week since the beginning of July and is around 10% lower than normal, a port spokesperson told Reuters.

Chemical and oil product tankers and dry bulk carriers are particularly affected because of their normally greater draught compared to container barges, which means they sit deeper in the water and require greater water depths.

DROUGHT REDUCES COMPANY EARNINGS

Apart from the natural devastation of wildfires and temperatures that have caused thousands of excess deaths, companies’ balance sheets have suffered from the changing climate.

Austrian utility Verbund, which produced about 85% of its electricity from hydropower last year, said on Thursday that drought conditions reduced earnings by about €370 million in the first half compared with a year of normal hydrological conditions.

French state-owned utility EDF said on Friday that full-year earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for 2026 were expected to fall by 10% because of low market prices and as heatwaves reduced power output.

In Italy, the Po River basin has entered a state of high water scarcity, threatening rice crops and drinking water supplies across the north.

Chief Executive of regional utility A2A, Renato Mazzoncini, said he expected hydropower production this year of 3.9 TWh compared to a historical average of 4.1.

“Some of our reservoirs are under pressure,” he said. “We practically need to start doing a rain dance.”

Additional reporting by Inti Landauro in Brussels; Giancarlo Navach in Milan; Danny Callaghan in Gdansk; Marleen Käsebier in Zurich; Rene Wagner in Berlin; Writing by Edward McAllister; editing by Barbara Lewis

Europe has been ravaged by wildfires this summer after a period of successive record-breaking heatwaves and little rain

International News via Reuters:

Wildfires fanned by heavy winds burned across multiple areas of Greece on Saturday, including near Athens, with large-scale firefighting operations and emergency evacuations underway, while conditions worsened again in parts of Spain and France. 

Europe has been ravaged by wildfires this summer after a period of successive record-breaking heatwaves and little rain. Villages in France and Spain have been destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes and holiday accommodation. 

Blazes fed by gale-force winds flared up across Greece, which until recent days had experienced fewer heatwaves and a relatively quiet fire season.

A Reuters live video feed showed firefighters, police and ambulances slowly withdrawing before a wall of fire and smoke that engulfed forests and shrub in the mountainous terrain of Agia Paraskevi, near Porto Germeno, about 60 kilometres (40 miles) northwest of the capital Athens.

Authorities said strong winds were hampering firefighting efforts, making them impossible in places. 

FIRE FLARES AGAIN IN SOUTHEASTERN FRANCE

In France, a fire in the mountainous southeastern Var department, which had been brought under control three days ago, flared up again on Friday, sweeping across more than 1,000 hectares in six hours.

French interior minister Laurent Nunez told reporters the situation in the Var was “very serious” and that fires have affected 119,000 hectares in France so far this year.

“It’s not at all under control,” said Eric Grohin, director of the Var department’s fire and rescue service, adding that the situation remained “very complicated”, with temperatures at 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) and winds set to pick up.

Local prefect Simon Babre also said several flare-ups had been dealt with on Saturday by firefighting aircraft and more than 1,500 personnel on the ground.

Nearly 2,500 people were evacuated overnight, with firefighters bringing in reinforcements on Saturday when winds were expected to strengthen and complicate efforts to control the blaze.

In southwestern France, the South Gironde animal sanctuary was treating deer that had escaped a massive fire near Bordeaux that burned for more than a week but suffered burns or accidents due to panic, such as collisions with cars or fences, said manager Patrick Meng.  

“There are hundreds of thousands of (animal) deaths; it’s a catastrophe,” he said.

SPANISH CONDITIONS MIXED

Spain continued battling several wildfire hot spots on Saturday, two days after the government declared the end of a national emergency caused by huge fires in the country’s central provinces.

Conditions worsened in the northern province of Leon, where a new blaze broke out overnight, another remained active, and a third was evolving favourably, according to authorities. In neighbouring Zamora province, a fire that ravaged about 11,000 hectares improved enough for 14 evacuated towns to reopen and restrictions to be lifted.

In the eastern province of Castellon, the Vall d’Uixo fire was stabilised on its seventh day after burning nearly 10,000 hectares, allowing all evacuated residents to return. Police said they suspected arson after finding two separate ignition points.

Major fires in the central regions of Madrid and Avila, which burned more than 70,000 hectares, were stabilised. A new outbreak near the San Juan reservoir, west of the capital, was extinguished on Friday.

EMERGENCY ALERTS

Greek authorities issued emergency alerts for several areas for Saturday and warned of extreme wildfire risk in the regions of Attica and Evia.

More than 300 firefighters, 92 firefighting trucks, heavy machinery and aircraft have continued to battle a conflagration in the region of Boeotia, where more than 200 people from the town of Agios Vasileios, about 80 km northwest of Athens, had to be evacuated by sea.

Another 12 people, fleeing the same blaze, were evacuated from the beach in Porto Germeno by Greek Coast Guard patrol boats and a Fire Service vessel.

The fire in Porto Germeno split into three fronts and many houses caught fire in the area, the Protothema newspaper reported. Authorities told people from the nearby towns of Agia Paraskevi, Kryo Pigadi and Agios Nektarios to evacuate.

EU countries are having an above-average season for wildfires, already overtaking 2025’s record-breaking year.

Across parts of western and southern Europe, a relatively wet winter fed forests and scrubland before successive heatwaves baked new growth into tinder, leaving abundant fuel for fires.

HEAT-RELATED DEATHS

And the toll of extreme weather has extended well beyond the widespread devastation caused by fires. 

In Austria, the country’s Agency for Health and Food Safety reported a record 395 heat-related deaths for the month of June. 

Earlier this week, Britain said an estimated 2,877 people had died from heat-related causes so far this year, while France reported 5,764 excess deaths in the country between June 17 and July 2, and Germany’s RKI health body estimated 9,800 people had died so far this year linked to the high temperatures.

Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic in Belgrade, Dominique Patton in Paris, Edward McAllister in Athens, John Revill in Zurich and David Latona in Madrid; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Alex Richardson