nuclear-news

EDF will spend nearly 9 billion euros to adapt to climate change

By Hector Pietrani,  June 13, 2026, https://www.revolution-energetique.com/actus/edf-va-depenser-pres-de-9-milliards-deuros-pour-sadapter-au-rechauffement-climatique/

Dams, nuclear power plants, the entire electricity production, transmission, and distribution infrastructure is affected by climate change. EDF has announced an €8.7 billion investment in adaptation.

Extreme weather events are causing EDF so much concern that it has been forced to open its coffers. The national energy company presented an €8.7 billion adaptation plan over fifteen years in early June. That’s €600 million per year, four times more than the current annual expenditure (€150 million). The goal is to adapt nuclear power plants , among other production facilities, to the inevitable heat waves, low river flows, and regulations governing heat discharge into natural waterways.

Today, EDF’s nuclear power production is sometimes limited in the summer 
due to high temperatures or low river flows. EDF is studying the widespread adoption of wastewater cooling systems, which have already been tested, notably at Civaux.

890 million euros lost in twenty years

According to the Court of Auditors, production losses due to environmental causes cost EDF €890 million between 2001 and 2023 and affected 0.3% of the annual production of its fleet. These outages could triple or quadruple by 2050, and reach 1.4% of production by 2035 if EDF does not significantly accelerate its adaptation efforts.

RTE also plans to invest 20 billion euros to ensure that 80% of its electricity network 
is resilient to extreme heat and flooding or submersion by 2040. According to the Directorate General for Enterprises, almost all strategic players in energy and transport have now embarked on this approach.

GDP points are disappearing due to climate change

By the end of 2024, 23 companies in the portfolio of the French State Shareholding Agency (APE), representing 91% of its revenue, had completed their climate vulnerability assessment, a 22% increase in one year. At the same time, 15 of them had already submitted their adaptation strategy to their governing bodies (a 13% increase year-on-year).

“Without an ambitious increase in current climate policies, the impact of climate change on activity could amount to [– 11 points of GDP in France in 2050] 
. It therefore appears necessary to strengthen actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to accelerate initiatives to adapt to climate change,” assures  the Directorate General for Enterprises.

July 16, 2026 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change, EUROPE