As Europe looks to secure alternative energy sources to Russian gas in light of the war in Ukraine , Statista’s Anna Fleck warns , a new threat to energy security is stirring, this time from droughts. The droughts hitting Europe are impacting everything from food to transportation to the environment. In Italy, the River Po has fallen two meters below its normal levels, seeing rice paddy fields dry out. Meanwhile, Germany’s River Rhine has become so shallow that cargo vessels can’t pass through it fully loaded, pushing up shipping costs, and France’s Tille River, in the Burgundy region, is now a dried up bed covered in thousands of dead fish. But Europe’s energy production has also been impacted. As Statista’s chart below shows, hydroelectric power has fallen some 20 percent since 2021. This partly comes down to the fact reservoirs have been drying up in countries such as Italy, […]