Tag: drought

SPECIAL REPORT / Faced with a worsening drought and food crisis in Africa’s Sahel region last year, the United Nations got a sudden infusion of EU cash to provide nutritional help to 1.5 million pregnant women and children.

The European Commission’s proposal for a soil directive has been stalled for more than six years, but Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik hopes the newly announced Environment Action Programme (EAP) will eventually revive negotiations on the controversial proposals.

Droughts, poor land use and water access have all contributed to recent volatility in food prices and regional food emergencies. To address such insecurity in food supplies, good water management and governance – as well as reliable early warning systems – are needed, says Jens Berggren, who heads World Water Week that begins on 26 August in Stockholm.

The world’s scientists are now more than 90% sure that human-caused global warming will increase the length, frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as heat waves, the most authoritative scientific report yet on the subject says.

As farmers in northern Europe try to grapple with an unusually dry weather, France agreed yesterday (9 June) to spend between €500 million and €1 billion to help farmers affected by a spring drought that has parched fields and shrunk the supply of animal fodder. 

Norway and Finland are the countries that will be least affected by climate change, while Bangladesh and India are most at risk, according to an index released yesterday (20 October).

The challenge posed by current high oil prices is nothing compared to what lies ahead amid dwindling supply and growing demand for a far more basic commodity - water, warns a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor.

EU leaders agree that too much water - up to 40%, according to the Commission - is being wasted by consumers, industry and farmers across Europe. The EU executive is calling for higher water prices and better implementation of existing water-management rules.

Citing ''dramatic increases'' in the intensity and frequency of water shortages and drought over last 30 years, the Commission has put forward a set of recommendations and policy options, including higher prices and conservation measures.

Rich countries should provide $50 billion annually to help Africa and other impoverished nations face the consequences of climate change that cannot be avoided, including droughts, floods and declining crops, the NGO has said in a report ahead of the G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany.

The Commission responded to the request of the Portuguese authorities by offering to mobilise the EU Solidarity Fund (EUSF).

Structural unemployment in agriculture is one of the major political challenges in the candidate countries, according to a new study released by the Commission on 1 August.