- Muslim women break taboos navigating east London's waterways
- Nepal dam-building spree powers electric vehicle boom
- More than 60 dead from storm Helene as rescue, cleanup efforts grow
- Dozens missing, 9 dead in migrant boat wreck off Spanish Canaries
- Death toll from Hurricane John hits eight in Mexico
- Storm Helene's toll rises as rescue and cleanup efforts gain pace
- SpaceX launches mission to return stranded astronauts
- Storm Helene kills 44, threatens more 'catastrophic' flooding as cleanup begins
- SpaceX set to launch mission to return stranded astronauts
- Storm Helene kills 44, threatens more 'catastrophic' flooding
- Boeing strike grinds on as latest talks fail to reach agreement
- Iran 'news' sites, hackers target Trump ahead of US election
- US ports brace for potential dockworkers strike
- Japan's speedy, spotless Shinkansen bullet trains turn 60
- US hurricane deaths rise to 44, fears of more 'catastrophic' flooding
- Global stocks mostly rise, cheering Beijing stimulus
- Europe en route for Moon with new simulator, says astronaut Pesquet
- Fireworks forecast if comet survives risky Sun flypast
- Argentina judge orders dictionary to delete pejorative definition of 'Jewish'
- Global stocks rise on rate hopes, Beijing stimulus
- S.African woman turns 118, among the oldest in the world
- UK clears $4 bn AI partnership between Amazon, Anthropic
- Barca fans barred from Champions League away game over racist banner
- Chinese stocks extend surge, Europe higher on Beijing stimulus
- Pope says Church must 'seek forgiveness' for child sexual abuse
- China caps week of 'bazooka' stimulus for ailing economy with rate cut
- Cuts, cash, credit: China bids to jumpstart flagging economy
- France's debt weighs heavier ahead of budget debate
- Iran treads carefully, backing Hezbollah while avoiding war
- Return to sender: waste stranded at sea stirs toxic dispute
- 'Broken' news industry faces uncertain future
- On remote Greek island, migratory birds offer climate clues
- Taken from mother by nuns, victim seeks answers as pope visits Belgium
- China cuts amount banks hold in reserve to boost lending
- Hong Kong, Shanghai extend surge as China optimism boosts markets
- Vietnam president reiterates support for Cuba during official visit
- Drought reduces Amazon River in Colombia by as much as 90%: report
- Stay or go? Pacific Islanders face climate's grim choice
- Florida bracing for 'unsurvivable' Hurricane Helene
- Poverty rises to over 52 percent in Milei's Argentina
- Chloe's see-through look may not be for Kamala Harris
- Champagne houses abuzz over English sparkling wine
- Macron, Trudeau pledge to work for 'decarbonized' economies
- Hurricanes, storms, typhoons... Is September wetter than usual?
- China stimulus, tech optimism boost stock markets
- 'Unsurvivable' Hurricane Helene races towards Florida
- Macron meets Trudeau in Canada as both face political setbacks
- South Korea surges in UN innovation index
- Chloe's see-through look may not be for Kamala
- Floods threaten Niger's historic 'gateway to the desert'
Climate change challenges hydropower-dependent Austria
High in the Austrian Alps, hundreds of construction workers toil in a huge underground project aimed at storing hydropower as climate change has reduced the country's water-dependent electricity production.
Austria draws more than 60 percent of its electricity output from the renewable energy source, compared to a global average of 16 percent, with more than 3,100 dams spread across its rivers.
But the amount of electricity generated through hydropower in the European Union country is down -- from some 45 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2020 to 42 TWh in 2021 -- as water levels are falling.
For the first time last year, Austria -- which also still relies heavily on Russian gas -- had to import electricity, ringing alarm bells.
Inside the snow-capped mountain range, above the Austrian village of Kaprun in the Salzburg region, trucks thunder in and out of the vast subterranean construction site, which is dotted with statues of Saint Barbara, patron of miners and others plying dangerous trades.
Excavation work for the Limberg 3 pumped storage power plant is wrapping up.
- 'Well prepared' -
The plant is to be operational by 2025 to store power in order to cater to peaks in electricity consumption and mitigate a change in weather patterns, including increasingly capricious and irregular rainfall.
"We want to be prepared well," said Klaus Hebenstreit, an executive of main electricity producer Verbund.
"The distribution (of water) over the year will change: we will have less water in summer (due to drought) and more in winter" due to snow melt, he added.
Two years of drought have hit Austria, like the rest of Europe, according to Roman Neunteufel, a senior researcher at Vienna's University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences.
"If there are several dry years in a row, then this becomes very noticeable... Water levels have never been lower since records began" some 100 years ago, he said.
Europe should brace for more deadly heatwaves driven by climate change, said a report last month by the World Meteorological Organization and the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service.
The report noted the world's fastest-warming continent was some 2.3 degrees Celsius hotter last year than in pre-industrial times.
In the Alps, glaciers saw a new record mass loss for a single year in 2022, caused by very low winter levels of snow, a hot summer as well as deposits of wind-blown Saharan dust.
- Difficult diversification -
Verbund, a semi-public company, continues to pour billions of euros into hydropower generation despite criticism from activists who say the dams and plants have a big impact on the environment.
"Hydropower expansion must be ecologically and socially compatible.... The complete expansion of hydropower is not the solution to our energy problem. Instead, it is necessary to save energy," the Word Wildlife Fund says on its site.
Verbund is looking at alternatives.
"Water will continue to be extremely important for us, but we also want to develop photovoltaic and wind energy... We are diversifying," Hebenstreit told AFP in Vienna on a day temperatures soared to 37 degrees Celsius (99 degrees Fahrenheit).
Austria, which aims to draw all of its electricity from renewable energy by 2030, has been slow to develop wind and solar power, which make up only 13 percent of its electricity.
"Solar energy is wonderfully abundant in summer... But production is too low in winter, precisely when we need it for heating," Neunteufel said.
"And with wind, it's even harder to plan: There can be days any time without wind, and then wind power production largely stops," he said.
A.Mykhailo--CPN