About: drought Archives

Europe's action in Ethiopia and the wider Horn of Africa region provides a telling example of the challenges international donours face when trying to link emergency assistance with long-term development aid.

With the worst drought in 50 years, some 18 million people dependent on emergency food supplies, and aid agencies warning the money and the aid will run out in two months, it seems a strange time for Ethiopia to be marketing itself as an upmarket tourist destination.

With world leaders having departed drought-ridden Ethiopia following the African Union meeting at the end of January, the time for talking and roundtables is over.

Organic farming could provide ample food for the whole human population, while causing less pollution and fewer health problems than conventional agriculture, according to a team of American scientists. Our partner Journal de l’Environnement reports.

A report by the Munich Re Group has shown that financial losses from natural catastrophes were lower in 2015 than in 2009. Nevertheless, the number of victims remains high. EURACTIV's partner Tagesspiegel reports.

EXCLUSIVE / Tom Vilsack, the United States Secretary of Agriculture, said that Washington “respects” Europe’s claim for geographic protection of food in the transatlantic trade talks. But he said this should not prevent similar US products from being marketed under brands used on the American market.

SPECIAL REPORT / For some experts, genetically modified organisms are the answer to Africa's harsh climate and low agricultural productivity. But for critics, dependence on powerful seed companies outweighs the benefits. EURACTIV France reports. 

Puerto Rico hopes that tropical systems Danny and Erika dump enough rain on the Caribbean island to avert the need for intensifying water rationing brought on by a severe drought.

SPECIAL REPORT / Learning from past crises, the European Commission has changed tack on its approach to food security in the Horn of Africa, focusing on resilience to droughts and supporting diversification in local farming production.

Increasing vulnerability to extreme weather events, climate change, economic crisis and conflict have 19 countries facing either “alarming” or “extremely alarming” hunger levels, says the Global Hunger Index, to be launched today (16 October) at the European Parliament.

The World Food Programme is UN’s front-line agency in disaster and conflict areas. Its new director in the Horn of Africa, Valerie Guarnieri, says the European Union’s recent crisis response in sub-Saharan Africa should set a new standard for financing humanitarian action.

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.

East African livestock herders are using mobile phones to send early warnings of drought, part of a new effort to avert disasters like the one two years ago that required a massive EU humanitarian response.

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

Austerity measures imposed by Spain’s central and regional governments have left fire brigades short-handed as they battle some of the worst forest fires in years, according to a conservationist and news reports from the parched country.

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.

Droughts in southern and eastern Europe are contributing to the global decline in grain production while also elevating concern about the long-term impact on freshwater supplies.

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.

England’s third dry winter in a row has led British authorities to call for conservation measures, while China’s government has warned that two-thirds of the country’s cities face severe water shortages because of drought and rampant consumption.

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. 

France has curbed water consumption in 28 of its 96 administrative departments, the environment ministry said on Monday (16 May), as a rainless spell that has wilted grain crops looks set to continue.

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).

Greater efforts on pricing and efficiency are needed to reverse the over-exploitation of Europe's limited water resources, argues a European Commission report on the EU's strategy to tackle water scarcity and drought.