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BUDAPEST, Hungary — A historic unprecedented event is set to unfold in Hungary’s energy sector this week, as the country’s sole nuclear power plant will power down completely for the first time in its 40-plus year operational history, driven by crippling drought that has pushed Danube River water levels to all-time lows. Prime Minister Péter Magyar confirmed the development during an on-site press conference at the Paks facility Friday, warning that the plant could remain offline for multiple weeks with no meaningful rainfall forecast to reverse the river’s steady decline.

Located roughly 90 kilometers south of Budapest, the Soviet-built, four-reactor Paks plant already operates at less than 50% of its standard generating capacity. Currently producing just 965 megawatts of electricity, far below its typical 2,000 megawatt output, the facility relies on Danube water to cool its active reactors. With the river dropping to unprecedented lows, the plant’s pumping infrastructure can no longer draw enough cooling water to maintain safe operations.

Magyar outlined that further gradual output cuts would begin later Friday, with a full shutdown of the entire facility expected to be completed by either Tuesday or Wednesday. The prime minister emphasized that the controlled shutdown will follow all strict safety protocols, stressing there is no elevated risk to public safety or surrounding ecosystems from the planned outage.

For context, Paks supplies nearly half of Hungary’s total annual electricity generation, making its impending 44-year first shutdown a major test of the country’s energy stability. The crisis is just the latest symptom of a months-long prolonged drought that has gripped Hungary and much of Central Europe, hammering tourism, agriculture, and industrial operations while forcing communities to confront the tangible impacts of accelerating climate change. Current meteorological projections offer no immediate relief: no significant precipitation is forecast in the region for the coming days, and even weeks, meaning Danube water levels are not expected to rebound anytime soon.

Magyar noted that over the past two decades, Danube water levels have only risen during the month of August three times. Current projections indicate the water level at Paks could drop as low as negative 144 centimeters, a measurement that sits far below the 2018 previous record low of negative 98 centimeters. It is important to clarify that negative readings do not mean the river is dry; rather, they indicate the water level has fallen below the gauge’s standard zero reference point. Per Magyar, a full plant shutdown is triggered when levels drop to negative 134 centimeters.

To mitigate potential energy shortages, the Hungarian government has issued a formal request to large energy-intensive companies to voluntarily cut their electricity consumption, particularly during peak demand hours between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. So far, the country’s leading energy conglomerate MOL has already pledged to slash its power usage by 65 megawatt-hours, representing a 40% reduction from its typical consumption levels.

Beyond asking private firms for cooperation, Magyar announced additional energy conservation measures from the government: his political bloc has recommended suspending upcoming parliamentary sessions scheduled for Monday and Tuesday to cut unnecessary energy use, and he has issued an order requiring all state institutions to shut off all decorative outdoor and indoor lighting by Monday at the latest.

A fresh wave of destructive wildfires fanned by high winds has forced hundreds of people, the majority of whom are international tourists, to flee coastal communities in central Greece, marking the latest crisis in a season of record-breaking blazes across Southern Europe. The inferno first ignited early Friday near the small town of Agios Vasileios in the Viotia region, spreading with unexpected speed when gusty winds pushed flames toward the coast and trapped residents and visitors against the sea. Local Greek news agency Amna, quoting senior fire service officials, reports that more than 200 evacuees have already been extracted by sea, with an additional 100 people scheduled for rescue in the coming hours as emergency teams work to clear every last person from the fire-encircled town. Authorities had initially ordered the town’s population to move inland ahead of the fire’s advance, but rapidly shifting wind patterns cut off that escape route, leaving emergency planners with no option but to launch a maritime evacuation. A second large blaze broke out just a short distance along the central Greek coast, burning through hundreds of acres of agricultural farmland before advancing into the rural town of Xironomi. This fresh outbreak comes as firefighting teams across Greece have been stretched thin by simultaneous blazes across multiple popular tourist islands. On Crete, crews have spent days battling a massive wildfire that has already scorched thousands of hectares of land and forced the temporary evacuation of 8,000 local residents and visitors; teams are still working to extinguish persistent hotspots that threaten to reignite. Smaller but still dangerous fires have also broken out on the Aegean islands of Paros, Andros, and Kalymnos, stretching national fire resources even thinner. Greece is far from alone in facing this unprecedented wildfire crisis: a months-long string of record-breaking heatwaves across Southern Europe has created near-perfect conditions for large blazes to ignite and spread, turning much of the region into a tinderbox. In neighboring Portugal and Spain, firefighting crews are still working to contain blazes that have already burned thousands of hectares of forest, farmland, and vineyards, and a new heatwave rolling through the region this week has raised fears that a large blaze outside Madrid could reignite after being partially contained. Experts point to a combination of long-term climate change and short-term seasonal conditions that have amplified wildfire risk across the continent. While nearly all wildfires are triggered by human activity, whether accidental or intentional, rising average global temperatures driven by climate change have extended wildfire seasons and made extreme fire conditions far more common. A mild, wet winter across much of Southern Europe encouraged lush vegetation growth across the landscape, and that extra vegetation has since completely dried out amid back-to-back heatwaves, creating an abundant supply of flammable fuel for any fire that starts. EU statistical data confirms the severity of this year’s fire season: as of late July 2026, more than 200,000 hectares of land have burned in Spain alone, an area roughly five times the average amount burned by this point in a typical year. Portugal has also seen far more fire activity than the historical average. In northern Portugal’s Valpaços region, hundreds of firefighters have been battling a single large blaze since Tuesday that has torn through 15,000 hectares of land, including commercially valuable vineyards and olive groves. Portuguese news agency Lusa reports five people have already been injured in the fire. In Spain, the country’s largest ever recorded wildfire, burning in the Ávila region, has finally been stabilized after weeks of effort, while a separate blaze that scorched 66,000 hectares west of Madrid is fully contained. Even with these gains, Spanish officials have warned that high temperatures and dry conditions will keep the risk of new or rekindled fires at critical levels across most of the country through at least the end of the weekend. The wildfire crisis has also spread to Turkey’s Mediterranean coastline, where four active blazes are burning as of Friday, including one near the major tourist hub of Antalya. Turkey’s agricultural ministry reports that 206 separate wildfires have broken out across the country since just Wednesday, overwhelming local firefighting resources.

PARIS – For the third time in less than a century, Western Europe’s largest man-made forest is recovering from a devastating wildfire that has laid bare the combined threats of accelerating climate change and centuries-old industrial forestry practices. The massive blaze swept through 40,000 hectares of Les Landes’ pine plantations – an area four times the size of Paris – leaving a trail of ash and charred tree trunks across the 10,000-square-kilometer timber landscape in southwest France. The region has already weathered deadly catastrophic fires: an 82-fatality blaze in 1949, and another large destructive fire in 2022 that displaced 37,000 people and destroyed 320 square kilometers of woodland.

The Les Landes forest was not a natural ecosystem. Its origins trace to an 1857 law enacted under Napoleon III’s Second French Empire, which ordered the drainage of the region’s unproductive marshy heathlands to create an industrial timber and resin production hub. Municipalities were directed to plant dense, uniform rows of maritime pine, displacing local peasant communities and traditional sheep herding practices that had defined the region for generations. Today, the forest remains focused primarily on timber output, carrying enormous economic weight for southwest France: the sector supports 60,000 local jobs and generates more than 10 billion euros ($11.5 billion) in annual revenue. More than 90% of the forest is privately owned, with 75% of that land held by just 20% of owners, while the National Forest Office and local governments manage the remaining public portion.

While maritime pine boasts natural fire resistance via its thick bark and ability to regenerate after small blazes, the monoculture structure of the Les Landes plantations creates a tinderbox waiting to ignite, forestry experts explain. Unlike diverse mixed forests that combine conifers and broadleaf trees, single-species pine stands lack layered vegetation that shades and cools the forest floor. In a healthy mixed forest, less than 3% of solar radiation reaches the ground, keeping soil moist and retaining water-rich humus that prevents fires from taking hold. In Les Landes, the uniform rows of closely spaced pines leave soil exposed, baking it dry and depleting most areas of humus entirely. Fallen pine needles accumulate in thick, flammable layers that can smolder for weeks after a main blaze passes, while heat-ignited resinous pine cones can be carried hundreds of meters by wind to spark new spot fires.

Europe, the world’s fastest-warming continent, has amplified these existing vulnerabilities: rising temperatures and prolonged droughts created the ideal conditions for the 2025 blaze to spread out of control. As fire crews and local residents work for weeks to extinguish stubborn smoldering embers that repeatedly reignite, the disaster has sparked a national reckoning in France over how to adapt forest management to a hotter, drier climate worsened by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel use.

President Emmanuel Macron has called for replanting the burned areas to create an entirely different type of forest, noting that shifting conditions driven by climate change, plus growing pressure from expanding housing and tourism, require a fundamental break from past practices.

Experts have put forward a slate of potential reforms to reduce wildfire risk. Geographer Arthur Guérin-Turcq, who authored a report on the 2022 Les Landes wildfires, argues that the monoculture structure allows fires to spread unimpeded all the way to populated villages, making it essential to create buffer zones of less fire-prone land around settlements – such as wetlands, active farmland, or low-risk commercial spaces. Many forestry specialists also advocate for introducing broadleaf trees, which retain more soil moisture and reduce flammability, into the plantation landscape. Local fire defense leaders are pushing for larger, well-maintained firebreaks, even if that means sacrificing up to 2,000 hectares of forest to prevent catastrophic total loss. Still, Guérin-Turcq notes that transforming the entire Les Landes landscape faces major barriers, including the region’s poor, thin soils that are not well-suited to many broadleaf species.

Overhauling management of the forest will require complex negotiations between private landowners, the timber industry, and national and local public authorities. Nicolas Lafon, president of the Southwest Foresters’ Association which represents most private landowners, emphasized that forest owners are the primary victims of the disaster, not the cause, and called for national government to commit sufficient funding to support long-term reform. “Forest owners reject any attempt to portray them as being responsible for a disaster of which they are the primary victims,” he said. “They now expect the French government, elected officials, and all public stakeholders to implement a truly ambitious, coherent, and long-term national forest policy.” Lafon added that any transition away from monoculture in high-risk areas will require financial compensation for landowners to offset lost revenue.

The national rethink extends beyond forest structure to wildlife protection: an online petition calling for a temporary ban on hunting in recently burned areas, where surviving animal populations are already severely stressed, has gathered more than 300,000 signatures as of reporting.