About: drought Archives

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.

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 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.

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.

Speedy solutions are needed to combat water shortages, according to experts and politicians who debated the issue at a conference hosted by the European Water Forum in the European Parliament on 16 April.

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.

More than 20 people have died in south-eastern Europe as a result of unusually high temperatures and forest fires, intense rains and floods have hit the UK, and a tornado was reported in Poland amid growing concerns about the impacts of climate change.

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.

Forest fires, heat waves, population displacements, disease proliferation and increased water scarcity for agriculture are some of the inevitable consequences of climate change that EU countries need to prepare for, the European Commission has warned in a new Green Paper published on 29 June.

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 proportion of the earth's land surface stricken by serious
drought has more than doubled between the 1970s and 2002, US
scientists have shown. Hotter, dryer summers are predicted for
Europe.

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