Aid cuts cast long shadow over key Africa climate talks
For many Africans suffering under climate-driven crises such as drought or flooding, adapting to the climate crisis is seen as a top priority writes Nick Ferris from Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa. But aid cuts – particularly from Donald
Trump – mean that funding for such programmes is drying up.
Independent 9th Sept 2025, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/trump-cuts-aid-climate-africa-b2823143.html
Protect Arctic from ‘dangerous’ climate engineering, scientists warn.
Plans to fight climate change by manipulating the Arctic and Antarctic
environment are dangerous, unlikely to work and could distract from the
need to ditch fossil fuels, dozens of polar scientists have warned. These
polar “geoengineering” techniques aim to cool the planet in unconventional
ways, such as artificially thickening sea-ice or releasing tiny, reflective
particles into the atmosphere. They have gained attention as potential
future tools to combat global warming, alongside cutting carbon emissions.
But more than 40 researchers say they could bring “severe environmental
damage” and urged countries to simply focus on reaching net zero, the only
established way to limit global warming.
BBC 9th Sept 2025,
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yqw996q1ko
Kenya’s Ruto says western leaders have broken ‘climate blood pact’.
Africa Climate Summit told that developed countries are failing poorer
nations enduring worst effects of global warming.
Ruto told a gathering of fellow leaders at the Africa Climate Summit in Addis Ababa on Monday he was
“extremely concerned” developed countries were not following through on
their commitments. Overseas assistance budgets have been slashed by the UK,
France, Netherlands as defence spending stretches weak economies,
exacerbated by swingeing cutbacks by the US under President Donald Trump.
“Climate inaction” was costing tens of thousands of lives, Ruto said.
“Lives lost to a crisis Africa did not cause, as the least polluting
continent in the world.” Senegal’s former president Macky Sall also
told the summit that the continent and the rest of the world should prepare
for more shocks, following the “dangerous retreat” of the west from
climate action. “Africa’s crisis is not Africa’s alone,” he said.
“It fuels migration, pandemics, food insecurity, economic shocks,
extremism, and instability.”
FT 8th Sept 2025,
https://www.ft.com/content/c59f1907-4b2c-4f36-886a-60dabbdd29cc
World’s largest iceberg is finally about to disappear 40 years after breaking away from Antarctica
Megaberg twice the size of London could melt away within weeks
Stuti Mishra, Independent, 03 September 2025
A large Antarctic iceberg that calved almost four decades ago is now in its final days, with scientists saying it could vanish within weeks after drifting into warmer seas.
The megaberg, known as A23a, broke off the Filchner Ice Shelf in 1986 and became stuck on the seabed of the Weddell Sea, where it remained grounded for over 30 years.
It set adrift in 2020 and was carried by ocean currents into the “iceberg alley” – the South Atlantic route where most of Antarctica’s giants eventually meet their end.
Earlier this year, A23a still covered nearly 3,100 sq km, making it the world’s largest iceberg, bigger than Long Island and more than twice the size of London.
In recent months, however, enormous sections have splintered away. Satellite images analysed by the EU’s Copernicus programme show it has shrunk to less than half its original size, now measuring about 1,770 sq km.
Some of the breakaway fragments are themselves colossal, including one that is 400 sq km in area, while countless smaller bergs, still large enough to pose hazards to shipping, now litter surrounding waters.
The megaberg is breaking up “fairly dramatically”, Andrew Meijers, a physical oceanographer at the British Antarctic Survey, told AFP……………………………
Despite its size and longevity, researchers said the fate of A23a was inevitable once it left Antarctic waters. Exposed to warmer seas and battered by waves, it started dissolving at speed.
https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/iceberg-a23a-antarctica-melting-b2819233.html
These countries are sinking into the sea. What happens when they disappear forever?
Can these small island nations still be considered states if their land disappears?
Small island nations such as Tuvalu, Kiribati, the
Maldives and Marshall Islands are particularly vulnerable to climate
change. Rising seas, stronger storms, freshwater shortages and damaged
infrastructure all threaten their ability to support life. Some islands
even face the grim possibility of being abandoned or sinking beneath the
ocean. This raises an unprecedented legal question: can these small island
nations still be considered states if their land disappears? The future
status of these nations as “states” matters immensely. Should the worst
happen, their populations will lose their homes and sources of income. They
will also lose their way of life, identity, culture, heritage and
communities.
Independent 29th Aug 2025, https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/climate-change-un-maldives-kiribati-islands-states-icj-b2816719.html
Why New Large and Small Nuclear Reactors are Not Green.
August 20, 2025, By: Mark Z. Jacobson, https://nationalinterest.org/blog/energy-world/why-new-large-and-small-nuclear-reactors-are-not-green
Despite their considerable allure in the eyes of many, and despite being put forth as the cure to the energy crisis, nuclear reactors are not green.
Air pollution, global warming, and energy security are three of the biggest problems facing the world. Many have suggested that new nuclear reactors can help solve these problems. However, due to the long time from planning to operation alone, new reactors are useless for solving any of these problems. This is just one of seven issues with nuclear electricity that illustrate why it can’t be classified as “green.” Developing more clean, renewable energy is a viable solution.
Long Planning-to-Operation Time
The planning-to-operation (PTO) time of a nuclear reactor includes the time to identify a site, obtain a site permit, purchase or lease the land, obtain a construction permit, finance and insure the construction, install transmission, negotiate a power purchase agreement, obtain permits, build the plant, connect it to transmission, and obtain an operating license.
New reactors now require PTO times of seventeen to twenty-three years in North America and Europe and twelve to twenty-three years worldwide. The only two reactors built from scratch in the United States since 1996 were two in Georgia. They had PTO times of seventeen and eighteen years (construction times of ten and eleven years). The Olkiluoto 3 reactor in Finland began operating in 2023 after a PTO time of twenty-three years. A French reactor began operating in 2024 after a PTO time of twenty years. Hinkley Point C in the UK is estimated to have a PTO time of up to twenty-three years. Four UAE reactors had PTO times of twelve to fifteen years (construction times of nine years). A Chinese reactor in Shidao Bay had a PTO time of seventeen years. China’s Haiyang 1 and 2 had PTO times of thirteen and fourteen years. No reactor in history has had a PTO time of less than ten years. Today, that number is twelve years,
Wind and solar take only two to five years. Rooftop PV is down to six months. Thus, new nuclear is useless, but renewables are not, for solving the three world problems, which need an eighty percent solution by 2030 and 100 percent renewable by 2035 to 2050.
Cost
The 2025 cost of electricity for the new Vogtle nuclear reactors is $199 (169 to 228) per megawatt-hour. This compares with $61.5 (thirty-seven to eighty-six) for onshore wind and $58 (thirty-eight to seventy-eight) for utility-scale solar PV. Thus, new nuclear costs three (two to 6.2) times as much as new solar and wind. But nuclear’s cost does not include the cost to clean up the three Fukushima Dai-ichi reactor meltdowns, estimated at $460 to $640 billion, or ten to 18.5 percent of the capital cost of every reactor worldwide. Also, the cost of storing nuclear waste for 200,000 years is ignored. About $500 million is spent yearly in the United States to safeguard waste.
Air Pollution and Global Warming From Nuclear
There is no such thing as a close-to-zero-emission nuclear power plant. Carbon-equivalent emissions per unit of electricity from new nuclear power plants are nine to thirty-seven times those of onshore wind. Higher nuclear emissions are due to emissions from the background electric grid during the long PTO time of nuclear as compared with that of wind, emissions from mining and refining uranium, emissions from constructing and decommissioning a reactor, and heat and water-vapor emissions during reactor operations.
Weapons Proliferation Risk
The growth of nuclear electricity has historically increased the ability of several nations, most recently Iran, to enrich uranium or harvest plutonium to build or attempt to build nuclear weapons. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states, with “robust evidence and high agreement,” that “barriers to and risks associated with an increasing use of nuclear energy include…nuclear weapons proliferation concerns…” Building a reactor allows a country to import and secretly enrich uranium and harvest plutonium from uranium fuel rods to help develop nuclear weapons. This does not mean every country will, but some have. Small modular reactors (SMRs) increase this risk, because SMRs can be sold more readily to and transported to countries without nuclear power.
Meltdown Risk
To date, 1.5 percent of all nuclear power plants built have melted down to some degree. Meltdowns have been either catastrophic (Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986; three reactors at Fukushima Dai-ichi, Japan, in 2011) or damaging (Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, in 1979; Saint-Laurent, France, in 1980). The nuclear industry claims that new reactor designs are safe. But new designs are generally untested, and there is no guarantee that a new reactor will survive a disaster.
Waste Risk
Consumed fuel rods from nuclear reactors are radioactive waste. Most rods are stored near the reactor that used them. This has given rise to hundreds of radioactive waste sites that must be maintained for at least 200,000 years. The more nuclear waste that accumulates, the greater the risk of a leak that damages water supply, crops, animals, and/or humans.
Miining Lung Cancer Risk
Underground uranium mining, which is about half of all uranium mining, causes lung cancer in miners because uranium mines contain radon gas, some of whose decay products are carcinogenic. Wind and solar do not have this risk because they do not require continuous fuel mining, only one-time mining to produce the infrastructure, and such mining does not involve radon.
In sum, new nuclear takes seven to twenty-one years longer, costs two to 6.2 times as much, and emits nine to thirty-seven times the pollution per unit of electricity as new wind or solar. Beyond simply not being “green,” nuclear energy also has weapons proliferation risks, meltdown risks, waste risks, and mining lung cancer risks, which clean renewables avoid. SMRs will continue most of these problems and increase the risk of proliferation. In 2024, China added 378 gigawatts of wind, solar, and hydropower, ninety-five times the nuclear power it finished. Thus, even where nuclear is growing fastest, renewables are beating it by two orders of magnitude.
Finally, many existing reactors are so costly, their owners are demanding subsidies to stay open. But subsidizing existing nuclear may increase carbon emissions and costs versus replacing the plants with wind or solar.
Radiocarbon Dispersion around Canadian Nuclear Facilities
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 July 2016, https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/radiocarbon/article/radiocarbon-dispersion-around-canadian-nuclear-facilities/3BEF0553EC67E4951B9D5EF132D7EDCA
G. M. Milton, S. J. Kramer, R. M. Brown, C. J. W. Repta, K. J. King and R. R. Rao
Abstract
Canadian deuterium uranium (CANDU) pressurized heavy-water reactors produce 14C by neutron activation of trace quantities of nitrogen in annular gas and reactor components (14N(n,p)14C), and from 17O in the heavy water moderator by (17O(n,α)14C). The radiocarbon produced in the moderator is removed on ion exchange resins incorporated in the water purification systems; however, a much smaller gaseous portion is vented from reactor stacks at activity levels considerably below 1% of permissible derived emission limits.
Early measurements of the carbon speciation indicated that >90% of the 14C emitted was in the form of CO2. We conducted surveys of the atmospheric dispersion of 14CO2 at the Chalk River Laboratories and at the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station. We analyzed air, vegetation, soils and tree rings to add to the historical record of 14C emissions at these sites, and to gain an understanding of the relative importance of the various carbon pools that act as sources/sinks within the total 14C budget. Better model parameters than those currently available for calculating the dose to the critical group can be obtained in this manner. Global dose estimates may require the development of techniques for estimating emissions occurring outside the growing season.
Information
TypeIV. 14C as a Tracer of the Dynamic Carbon Cycle in the Current EnvironmentInformation
Radiocarbon , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , 1995 , pp. 485 – 496
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033822200030964
References…………………………………………………………………….
Do heatwaves, wildfires and travel costs signal the end of the holiday abroad?
It was a prediction nobody wanted to hear. On the main stage of the world’s
biggest tourism fair, Stefan Gössling, a leading researcher in sustainable
transport, had just calmly announced the looming death of the holiday
industry. “We have already entered the beginning of the age of
non-tourism,” said Gössling, to an uneasy audience of travel agencies,
car rental companies, cruise operators and hoteliers. That prophecy may
sound fanciful to holidaymakers in Europe and North America who have been
jetting off this summer – as well as to industry executives delighted to
see international tourism return to pre-pandemic highs last year – but
Gössling argues that as carbon pollution stokes heatwaves, fuels wildfires
and ruins harvests, the cost of foreign travel will soar, and fewer people
will be able to afford it. Gössling is not short of examples of
destinations already feeling the squeeze. Warm weather is melting snow that
keeps Alpine ski resorts alive. Coastal erosion is stripping sand from
southern European beaches. Droughts are forcing Spanish hotels to ship in
fresh water as swimming pools lie empty, while wildfires are setting scenic
Greek islands ablaze.
Guardian 23rd Aug 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/aug/23/do-heatwaves-wildfires-and-travel-costs-signal-the-end-of-the-holiday-abroad
Europe’s nuclear power plants buckle under climate extremes.
Europe’s reliance on nuclear power faces a new climate test as heat waves scorch the continent
Necva Tastan Sevinc |19.08.2025 , https://www.aa.com.tr/en/environment/europe-s-nuclear-power-plants-buckle-under-climate-extremes/3663772
While a lot of the nuclear public relations relates to nuclear as a sort of savior of climate change, unfortunately, the reverse is true,’ says expert Paul Dorfman
Operations of nuclear plants are being strained by warming rivers, storm surges and rising sea levels,
ISTANBUL
As the summer sun scorches Europe, the effects of a warming planet are becoming increasingly tangible – and while nuclear energy is often touted as part of the solution, it too is buckling under the heat.
“While a lot of the nuclear public relations relates to nuclear as a sort of savior of climate change, unfortunately, the reverse is true,” Paul Dorfman, chair of the Nuclear Consulting Group and a senior academic at the University of Sussex, told Anadolu. “Nuclear will be a significant and early climate casualty.”
This year, several European plants have reduced output or shut down altogether – not due to technical faults, but because the rivers that cool them are either too shallow or too hot.
France, where nuclear accounts for around 65% of electricity, has been particularly affected, with nearly all of its 18 nuclear sites reporting capacity reductions this summer.
Cooling crisis: Rivers too warm for reactors
Europe hosts around 166 operable nuclear reactors with a combined capacity of nearly 149 gigawatts (GW), approximately one-third of the global total.
France leads with 57 reactors, followed by the UK with nine. Other major operators include Spain, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland and Belgium, with smaller but strategic fleets in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.
Most were designed decades ago without climate resilience in mind, and rely heavily on water – often drawn from nearby rivers – to cool the systems that produce electricity.
After absorbing heat from the reactor, this water is typically returned to the environment. But when river levels drop or water temperatures rise too high, the cooling process becomes less effective, and in some cases, dangerous.
“If that … superheated water is discharged back to the rivers, basically it kills the river ecology,” said Dorfman. “So, there are regulatory temperature thresholds – and France has breached those numbers.”
He explained that inland reactors are already suffering due to “low flow and heating” in rivers such as the Rhone and the Loire, two of the country’s most crucial cooling sources.
While France may be the worst hit, the same situation played out in several countries this summer.
In Switzerland, at the Beznau plant on the Aare River, one reactor was halted entirely and the other reduced to 50% capacity. Other inland reactors across Central Europe, including those in countries like the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, face similar vulnerabilities.
Europe especially vulnerable
The issue is compounded by projections that Europe’s extreme heat events will only intensify in the coming decades.
According to the European Environment Agency, Europe is the fastest-warming continent in the world, with temperatures rising at roughly twice the global average rate.
Recently, the UK Met Office said that scorching temperatures are becoming the new normal, along with more frequent extreme events like drought, flash flooding and storms.
“We know what will happen in the next 10 to 20 years. We know that inland rivers will suffer. This is absolutely going to happen,” Dorfman said.
He added that even coastal plants are not safe from climate volatility.
“Coastal reactors will be increasingly subject to climate-driven storm surge flooding,” Dorfman warned. “We know that sea level rise, glacier melt, and storm surges will increasingly threaten nuclear sites. This is not speculative. It’s already happening.”
The majority of nuclear power plants were constructed long before climate change was evident. Now, he said, “they’re at greater risk.”
Demand soars, output drops
Europe’s energy dilemma is further complicated by surging electricity demand during heat waves, driven largely by air conditioning. Just as power is needed most, nuclear output often declines.
According to a new report by energy think tank Ember, the June-July 2025 heat wave caused electricity demand to surge by 14% in Spain, 9% in France and 6% in Germany. Peak demand was even higher.
The current energy model is showing its limits during temperature extremes, said Pawel Czyzak, Ember’s interim Europe Program director.
“Any thermal power plant draws water from a lake, river or the sea to cool its systems, like a car engine. But if the river is already hot, then it can’t cool efficiently,” he told Anadolu. “If you have a week of 35C (95F)-plus, rivers warm up, and you have issues with the cooling systems.”
The result, Czyzak explained, is that nuclear output is often scaled back.
“Normally that’s okay in summer, but during a heat wave, demand grows – and that causes a lot of stress for the power system.”
He explained that France is particularly vulnerable since it relies on nuclear for the bulk of its energy. “If nuclear goes down … then you don’t really have anything else to switch on,” he said.
Turning to renewables
But there are signs of a shift. According to Ember, solar power accounted for 22% of the EU’s electricity generation in July, narrowly surpassing output from the bloc’s nuclear power plants.
Combined generation from natural gas and coal fell short of both solar and nuclear. Meanwhile, electricity produced from wind and hydropower sources exceeded that of all fossil fuels combined.
“We know that 94.2% of all new worldwide electricity capacity last year was renewables,” Dorfman said.
“Nuclear takes 13 to 17 years to build, and that’s much too late for our climate needs,” he added.
He argues that renewables, paired with energy efficiency measures and grid innovations like battery storage and improved interconnectors, can help build a more resilient power system.
“It’s looking like a significant investment in renewables of all kinds – and in energy efficiency – is urgently needed,” said Dorfman.
Czyzak added that solar power is a particularly strong ally during heat waves.
“This year, pretty much every year, we’re seeing more solar power deployed and record generation volumes,” he added.
Still, he acknowledges the transition will not happen overnight. “I think maybe the next five years are a bit difficult, and then it will get better,” he said. “Generally, the countries that don’t have very flexible and diversified power systems are at most risk.”
Wildfire smoke far more dangerous to health than thought, say scientists.
Deaths from short-term exposure to fine particulates spewed by forest fires underestimated by 93%
Ajit Niranjan, Guardian, 19 Aug 25
Choking smoke spewed by wildfires is far more dangerous than previously thought, a new study has found, with death tolls from short-term exposure to fine particulates underestimated by 93%.
Researchers found that 535 people in Europe died on average each year between 2004 and 2022 as a result of breathing in the tiny toxic particles known as PM2.5 that are released when wildfires rage.
Under standard methods, which assume PM2.5 from wildfires is as deadly as from other sources, such as traffic, they would have expected just 38 deaths a year.
The study comes as wildfires ravage southern Europe, and new data from EU fire monitors shows that 895,000 hectares (2.2m acres) have burned so far in 2025, breaking records for this time of year. They have pumped out more than twice the amount of PM2.5 that wildfires have generated on average by this point in the year over the last two decades.
“Previously, people assumed the same toxicity for wildfire particles and all particles,” said Prof Cathryn Tonne, an environmental epidemiologist at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) and co-author of the study.
“Our paper shows evidence that – although it happens less often – the health impact for the same amount of particles is stronger for wildfire particles,” she added.
Dirty air is one of the biggest threats to human health, and research suggests wildfires are a significant contributor to the vast death toll. In December, a study attributed 1.53 million deaths around the world each year to short-term and long-term exposure to air pollution from wildfires.
The ISGlobal researchers, who looked only at the smoke’s short-term effects, for which the evidence base is stronger, combined daily mortality records from 32 European countries with estimates of PM2.5 pollution from 2004 to 2022.
Using models that account for an expected lag in deaths, they found exposure to wildfire smoke increased the risk of death in the following week………………………………………………………………………………………………. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/19/wildfire-smoke-far-more-dangerous-than-thought-say-scientists
EDF May Cut Nuclear Output in North France as River Levels Drop.
By Eva Brendel, August 19, 2025
Electricite de France SA will likely cut nuclear power production in northern parts of the country this week because of forecast shallow waters on the Meuse River.
Low flows may affect output from the Chooz plant located near the Belgian border starting Friday, according to a company statement.
“The Meuse is quite far north for this sort of restriction, so it’s notable for that reason,” said William Peck, senior power analyst at Energy Aspects Ltd. “But given the weather forecasts and the time of year, I don’t think we’ll see a major ongoing issue or much additional upside risk from it.”
The country’s atomic power plants have been disrupted recently amid weather-related pressures. A heat wave forced several reactors to curb output because the river water used to cool them became too warm.
In addition, four reactors were shut down after a swarm of jellyfish clogged the filter drums. Their growing numbers can be linked to climate change.
Elsewhere, EDF ended heat-related production warnings on the Garonne and Rhône rivers that were imposed almost two weeks ago………………… https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-18/edf-to-cut-nuclear-output-in-northern-france-on-low-river-levels
Hellish’: heatwave brings hottest nights on record to the Middle East.
Temperatures did not drop below 36C in Sedom, Israel on Tuesday
night, while several parts of Jordan stayed above 35C on Monday.
Guardian 15th Aug 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/15/hellish-heatwave-brings-hottest-nights-on-record-to-the-middle-east
Heat Waves Are a Growing Threat to Europe’s Nuclear Power Supply
Bloomberg News, Eamon Akil Farhat, Aug 08, 2025, https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/heat-waves-are-a-growing-threat-to-europes-nuclear-power-supply
Heat waves across Europe are increasing the need for nuclear power plants to be taken offline, with the situation expected to worsen in the coming decades and few options for mitigation.
(Bloomberg) — Heat waves across Europe are increasing the need for nuclear power plants to be taken offline, with the situation expected to worsen in the coming decades and few options for mitigation.
Weather-related nuclear outages, mainly caused by elevated temperatures of cooling water, increased threefold in the period from 2010 to 2019, compared with 1990 to 2009, according to a study published in Energy Economics. Due to climate change, the intensity and length of these heat waves is expected to increase.
“Summer heat waves are climbing fast — 0.85 more days each year since 2010,” said Jess Hicks, a weather analyst at BloombergNEF. “That trajectory spells growing cooling-water risks for French nuclear plants.”
…………………………….A separate study published in the journal Energy in April looked at two reactors operated by Electricite de France SA, Chooz and Golfech, which rely on river water for cooling. It concluded that climate change will increase water temperature and also reduce flow volumes. If both plants are still operating by 2050, the level of outages would have doubled at Chooz and increased tenfold for Golfech. In the worst years, about 14% of Chooz’s generation would need to be curtailed.
When faced with high water temperatures and low flows, nuclear operators have limited options.
A closed-cycle cooling system, which relies less on the external environment, is one option. However, the Energy Economics study found that retrofitting such systems would cost about $500 million per nuclear power plant.
Another option would be to relax environmental limits on river temperatures, allowing reactors to keep operating for longer during heat waves. Such restrictions have been waived in the past, for example in 2022 when the French nuclear regulator ASN temporarily allowed five nuclear plants to discharge hotter water into rivers as the nation struggled with an energy crisis.
EDF has been studying other methods to reduce water consumption at nuclear power plants, such as capturing the cooling vapor given off by the facilities.
Europe’s electricity system tested by heatwaves as air-conditioning use soars – nuclear power plants affected.
Record temperatures force temporary shutdowns at power plants.
Europe’s energy systems have come under intense strain this summer as
repeated heatwaves have driven up demand for electricity and forced plants
to pause production. June was the hottest on record in western Europe,
fuelling a rise in the use of air conditioning and prompting a sharp
increase in electricity prices. Most parts of the region experienced at
least two intense periods of heat in June and July, with some suffering
more.
The barrage of heatwaves this summer marked a “massive change”
for Europe’s energy systems, said Jan Rosenow, leader of the energy
programme at Oxford university’s Environmental Change Institute. Peak
electricity demand has historically happened in winter in Europe, but as
“summers get hotter at some point that might flip”, he said. SSE, the
UK power company, said generation from its hydropower plants dropped by 40
per cent quarter on quarter to the end of June, as Britain also grappled
with heatwaves and severe drought. Inland nuclear power plants across
France and Switzerland temporarily suspended or reduced activity earlier in
the summer, as it is harder to cool reactors in hot weather.
In France, 17 out of 18 nuclear power plants faced capacity reductions during the
June-July heatwave, Ember said. Most inland nuclear plants rely on rivers
to cool reactors and spent fuel, heating the water in the process before
discharging it back. But with many rivers already hot, the plants could not
discharge heated water without potentially damaging the river ecology.
FT 3rd Aug 2025, https://www.ft.com/content/23b3dc59-b40f-48e2-ad93-e301de7ac5f2
Melting glaciers threaten to wipe out European villages – is the steep cost to protect them worth it?
Melting glaciers threaten to wipe out European villages – is the steep
cost to protect them worth it? Switzerland spends almost $500m a year on
protective structures, but a report carried out in 2007 for the Swiss
parliament suggested real protection against natural hazards could cost six
times that. Is that a worthwhile investment? Or should the country – and
residents – really consider the painful option of abandoning some of their
villages?
BBC 3rd Aug 2025,
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj4w9ggzxv4o
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