{"id":1119540,"date":"2026-07-30T06:14:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T06:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1119540\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T06:14:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T06:14:23","slug":"central-europes-drought-deepens-as-rivers-hit-historic-lows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1119540\/","title":{"rendered":"Central Europe\u2019s Drought Deepens as Rivers Hit Historic Lows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Today\u2019s ESG Updates<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin: 0; padding-left: 18px; color: #111827; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.6;\">\n<li><strong>Drought Deepens in Central Europe: <\/strong>The Netherlands has declared a water shortage, and Poland has issued 61 drought warnings, as the Vistula and Rhine fall toward historic lows and strain farms and shipping.<\/li>\n<li><strong>TotalEnergies Approves Cyprus\u2019s First Gas Field: <\/strong>TotalEnergies and Eni have greenlit the Cronos field to supply Europe with LNG through Egypt, with production due in 2028.<\/li>\n<li><strong>ECB Makes Carbon-Heavy Lending More Costly for Banks: <\/strong> The European Central Bank has widened its climate risk factor, cutting the value of carbon-intensive loans used as collateral.<\/li>\n<li><strong>NYC Expands Coastal Defenses as Storms Worsen: <\/strong>Mayor Zohran Mamdani is adding nearly 70 staff and $43.2 million in funding to the city\u2019s Bureau of Coastal Resilience.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Central Europe\u2019s drought deepens as rivers hit historic lows<\/p>\n<p>A severe drought is affecting Central and Eastern Europe, straining farms, shipping and drinking water supplies during one of the region\u2019s driest years on record. The Netherlands has declared an official water shortage, and Poland\u2019s meteorological service has issued 61 drought warnings covering roughly half the country, with the Vistula River nearing historic lows.<\/p>\n<p>Shipping is already affected: on the Rhine, vessels south of Duisburg are limited to about a fifth of normal capacity, and freight rates on the Rotterdam\u2013Mannheim route have risen 40 to 60 percent. Farmers in Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and France are facing irrigation restrictions and failing crops, with France expecting its smallest maize harvest in 50 years. A study by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldweatherattribution.org\/increasingly-hot-europe-faces-more-severe-droughts-and-growing-challenges-for-water-and-land-management\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer external noopener nofollow\">World Weather Attribution<\/a> found the soil-moisture deficits behind this year\u2019s drought are about 11 times more likely due to human-driven climate change.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverything I grow in my garden has dried up this year,\u201d said one resident near Mikulov, in southern Moravia. \u201cYou can water all you want, and it still won\u2019t help.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p>Further reading: <a href=\"https:\/\/balkaninsight.com\/2026\/07\/28\/left-high-and-dry-drought-exposes-central-europes-water-crisis\/rd\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer external noopener nofollow\">Left High and Dry: Drought Exposes Central Europe\u2019s Water Crisis<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong style=\"font-size: 18px; color: #2e7d32;\">Featured ESG Tool of the Week:<\/strong><br \/>\n<a style=\"font-weight: bold; color: #00695c; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/klimado.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer external noopener nofollow\">Klimado<\/a> \u2013 Navigating climate complexity just got easier. Klimado offers a user-friendly platform for tracking local and global environmental shifts, making it an essential tool for climate-aware individuals and organizations.<\/p>\n<p>TotalEnergies approves new gas field off Cyprus<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-122044\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/July-30-2-300x217.jpg\" alt=\"Dock with West Bollsta semi-submersible drilling rig on the Tenerife island\" width=\"300\" height=\"217\"  \/>Dock with West Bollsta semi-submersible drilling rig on the Tenerife island. Photo Credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@luandmario\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer external noopener nofollow\">Maria Lupan<\/a><\/p>\n<p>TotalEnergies and Eni have taken the final investment decision to develop the Cronos gas field off Cyprus, the island\u2019s first gas project. Discovered in 2022, the field will be developed through four subsea wells in deep offshore waters.<\/p>\n<p>Gas will be piped to Egypt, liquefied at the Damietta LNG terminal, and shipped on to Europe. Production is due to start in 2028, reaching about 2.8 million tonnes of LNG a year, half of which TotalEnergies will market directly.<\/p>\n<p>CEO Patrick Pouyann\u00e9 said the project would help build a new gas hub in the Eastern Mediterranean and strengthen Europe\u2019s energy security by diversifying its LNG supply, while using Egypt\u2019s existing infrastructure to keep costs and emissions down. It\u2019s part of TotalEnergies\u2019 plan to grow its LNG portfolio to 60 million tonnes a year by 2030.<\/p>\n<p>The decision comes as energy majors face growing scrutiny over how new gas projects square with climate commitments. Critics say continued expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure sits uneasily with the pace of the energy transition, however the projects are framed.<\/p>\n<p>***<br \/>Further reading: <a href=\"https:\/\/totalenergies.com\/news\/press-releases\/cyprus-totalenergies-approves-development-cronos-gas-field-supply-europe-lng\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer external noopener nofollow\">Cyprus: TotalEnergies Approves the Development of the Cronos Gas Field to Supply<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Related Articles<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Here is a list of articles selected by our Editorial Board that have gained significant interest from the public:<\/p>\n<p>Frankfurt tightens the screws on carbon-heavy lending<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-122045\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/July-30-4-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"ECB building in Frankfurt at night\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\"  \/>Caption: ECB Frankfurt with Skyline at night. Photo Credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:ECB_Frankfurt_with_Skyline.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer external noopener nofollow\">Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The move builds on the bank\u2019s earlier work folding climate risk into its collateral framework, part of a wider push by European regulators to treat climate exposure as a financial stability issue rather than a side concern. By changing how it values riskier loans, the ECB is telling commercial banks that financing high-emission, slow-to-transition industries now carries a real cost, not just a theoretical one.<\/p>\n<p>The change comes as European lenders face growing pressure to align their portfolios with climate goals, even as some governments push back against the pace of green regulation. Analysts say it could prompt banks to reprice climate risk in their own lending decisions, rather than waiting for it to become a problem later.<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p>Further reading: <a href=\"https:\/\/greencentralbanking.com\/2026\/07\/27\/ecb-expands-climate-factor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer external noopener nofollow\">ECB expands its climate factor to shield the EU from climate-related shocks<\/a><\/p>\n<p>NYC ramps coastal defenses ahead of the next big storm<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-122043\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1280px-Zohran_Mamdani_Speaking_at_a_DSA_101_Meeting_at_the_Church_of_the_Village_in_NYC-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Zohran Mamdani Speaking at a DSA 101 Meeting at the Church of the Village in NYC\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\"  \/>Zohran Mamdani Speaking at a DSA 101 Meeting at the Church of the Village in NYC. Photo Credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Zohran_Mamdani_Speaking_at_a_DSA_101_Meeting_at_the_Church_of_the_Village_in_NYC.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer external noopener nofollow\">Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Mayor Zohran Mamdani has announced a major expansion of New York City\u2019s Bureau of Coastal Resilience, adding nearly 70 positions (engineers, city planners, field inspectors) to strengthen the city\u2019s defenses against rising seas and worsening coastal storms.<\/p>\n<p>The bureau handles planning, operations and maintenance for the city\u2019s coastal flood-protection infrastructure. Until now, it ran on just six staff plus borrowed workers from other departments. The expansion brings $43.2 million in new funding, including $10.6 million this fiscal year, and pays for several long-term studies on protecting the city\u2019s 520 miles of coastline.<\/p>\n<p>It adds to other flood spending already underway: $108 million for citywide sewer improvements and $95 million for flooding hotspots in Brooklyn. Together, the measures suggest the city is starting to treat climate resilience as permanent infrastructure, not a one-off project as coastal storms and inland flooding both become more frequent.<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p>Further reading: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/07\/24\/nyregion\/nyc-climate-change-mamdani.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer external noopener nofollow\">Mamdani Commits $43 Million to Jump-Start Effort to Stop NYC Flooding<\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Editor\u2019s Note:<\/b> The opinions expressed here by the authors are their own, not those of impakter.com \u2014<b>\u00a0Cover Photo Credit<\/b>: <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@cb_21\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer external noopener nofollow\">Carlett Badenhorst.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today\u2019s ESG Updates Drought Deepens in Central Europe: The Netherlands has declared a water shortage, and Poland has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1119541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2311,46000,15685,2000,299,5187,5429,5443,84590],"class_list":["post-1119540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-climate-change","tag-drought","tag-ecb","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-green-finance","tag-lng","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117007463396573188","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1119540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1119540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1119540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1119541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1119540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1119540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1119540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}