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Europe’s eastern frontier is feeling the full brunt of a warming world. From rivers bursting their banks to fields withering in record heat, emerging Europe stands on the climate front line—and must act fast.
Winter arrived late to the streets of Bucharest this year. Beyond a short flurry in early December, it was mid-February before any significant amount of snow fell on the Romanian capital. Within a week, however, the snow was gone, as some of the lowest temperatures recorded in recent years quickly gave way to far higher temperatures.
It was not always so. Just a decade or so ago, Bucharest would be blanketed with snow for weeks on end every winter, often closing schools and exacerbating the city’s already awful traffic congestion.
Bucharest is not alone. Other capitals in the emerging Europe which were once guaranteed snow have been similarly barren in recent years, from Warsaw to Sofia.
Yet there is more to this new winter reality than mere inconvenience. Across the region, average temperatures have been steadily climbing, with the European Environment Agency reporting a rise of around 0.5°C per decade in many parts of Europe since the 1980s.
More recently, 2023 saw one of the hottest summers on record, accompanied by extreme heatwaves that stretched from southern Spain to the Baltic coast. Even if snowfall returns in the years ahead, it is increasingly clear that climate change is reshaping weather patterns across emerging Europe at an accelerating pace.
A patchwork of new threats
The absence of snow in is just one facet of a larger climate conundrum. At the same time that winter precipitation declines in some areas, other parts of the region contend with unprecedented flooding.
In 2024, Slovenia and Poland suffered severe flash floods following torrential downpours, while the Danube’s rising water levels threatened low-lying towns in Serbia and Bulgaria.
Droughts, once predominantly associated with southern Europe, now also afflict parts of Central and Eastern Europe—Romania’s grain belt experienced a long dry spell in 2022 that dented harvest yields.
Meanwhile, heatwaves, historically less frequent in these latitudes, are fast becoming an annual summer phenomenon, putting pressure on healthcare systems and energy grids.
Poland, for instance, recorded temperatures exceeding 40°C in some regions during the summer of 2023—an extraordinary level for a country unaccustomed to long heat spells.
Forest fires, once a rarity outside the Mediterranean, now crop up in Croatia’s hinterlands and the mountainous areas of Montenegro. Scientists note that while Southeastern Europe remains more exposed to extreme heat, climate changes are manifesting everywhere.
Urban zones, packed with concrete and lacking adequate green spaces, can bake in stagnant summer air and face the risk of flash flooding when sudden storms do arrive.
Floods, droughts, and heatwaves
Among the most vulnerable regions are river basins and coastlines that have historically relied on steady weather patterns. Much of Romania, Bulgaria, and the Western Balkans sits astride the Danube River, which has recently experienced erratic water levels.
During periods of intense rain, the Danube swells rapidly, threatening to breach flood barriers. Conversely, extended droughts can wreak havoc on agriculture, transport, and hydropower, imperilling national energy security.
On the coastlines of the Black Sea and the Adriatic, rising sea levels pose a subtler but no less menacing challenge. Low-lying towns could see more frequent flooding, saltwater intrusion into freshwater supplies, and accelerated coastal erosion.
Experts warn that without sufficient mitigation measures, these dangers will amplify in the coming decades, requiring not just robust sea walls and dykes, but also a rethink of local planning and water management practices.
Heatwaves, too, cut across the region’s north-south divide. During the scorching summer of 2023, hospitals from Budapest to Skopje reported spikes in heat-related illnesses.
Public transport in several major cities was hampered by rails and roads buckling under extreme temperatures. While Western European countries have more practice in coping with heat—through air conditioning, better infrastructure, or public awareness campaigns—many emerging European nations find themselves caught off guard by these climatic extremes.
Investing in resilience
Such challenges underline the importance of adaptation. Policymakers and businesses in emerging Europe increasingly recognise that waiting for global efforts to reduce emissions will not suffice—investing in resilience is imperative.
Take the example of Slovenia, which, after severe floods in 2024, redoubled efforts to upgrade its flood-control systems. It now invests in advanced water management infrastructure, from improved levees and floodplain restoration to ‘green corridors’ designed to absorb excess rainfall.
A combination of EU funds and national budgets has also spurred investment in nature-based solutions, such as restoring wetlands that can naturally mitigate flooding.
Romania, which relies heavily on agriculture, has started pilot projects to modernise its irrigation networks—some dating back to the communist era and sorely in need of repair.
Farmers who once gambled on consistent rainfall are embracing drip-irrigation systems and better soil monitoring technologies. Similar initiatives are observed in Bulgaria, Hungary, and Serbia, where governments partner with local cooperatives to encourage sustainable water usage and reduce vulnerability to drought.
Forestry strategies are in flux, too. The Carpathian Mountains, Europe’s green spine stretching through Central and Eastern Europe, face the twin threats of logging and climate-induced pest infestations, such as bark beetles thriving in milder winters.
Reforestation, afforestation, and more responsible logging practices are being adopted to maintain the region’s biodiversity, protect watersheds, and lock in carbon. As climate extremes intensify, healthy forests also act as natural buffers against soil erosion, landslides, and flooding.
The technological edge
Adaptation is not just about building dykes, upgrading irrigation, or planting trees. An array of technologies is reshaping how local authorities and businesses plan for—and respond to—extreme weather.
Satellite monitoring systems, for instance, provide real-time data on everything from water levels to forest fires, helping emergency services intervene more swiftly. Estonia and Poland have been investing in AI-driven climate modelling platforms that crunch historical weather data and current satellite feeds, allowing urban planners to anticipate where floods might strike next.
In rural areas, the advent of precision agriculture is reducing reliance on guesswork. Sensors embedded in fields can read soil moisture and temperature, delivering data to farmers via smartphone apps.
These farmers can then decide exactly when—and how much—to irrigate, fertilise, or harvest. Over time, such granular data collection forms an invaluable repository for meteorological agencies, enabling more accurate seasonal forecasts.
Smart city concepts are similarly gaining traction in places like Prague and Bratislava. Here, local governments are trialling systems that track temperature variations across neighbourhoods, identify ‘heat islands’, and recommend targeted interventions, such as planting trees or installing reflective materials on rooftops.
Looking to the future, some governments see AI and machine learning as integral not only to crisis prevention but also to rapid disaster response. A handful of pilot projects in Croatia already use drone fleets for early fire detection, especially in coastal pine forests prone to intense summer wildfires.
Policies, funding, and coordination
Underlying these efforts is a surge of public-sector initiatives. At the European level, the EU’s Cohesion Policy and the Recovery and Resilience Facility have allocated substantial funding for climate mitigation and adaptation projects in new member states.
Romania and Bulgaria, among others, are tapping these resources to modernise their energy grids, flood defences, and public transportation networks. The European Investment Bank (EIB) also disburses climate-focused loans, supplementing national budgets for building resilience.
Yet there are persistent hurdles. Red tape can hamper project approvals, while capacity constraints in local administrations slow implementation. Competition for funds remains fierce, especially when adaptation schemes must vie with other infrastructure projects deemed more urgent.
Regional cooperation is equally crucial but not always forthcoming. Although the Danube River unites multiple countries, joint flood-prevention measures can be complicated by differing national regulations and priorities.
Bilateral and multilateral organisations help fill these gaps by encouraging states to coordinate. The Central European Initiative, for instance, has promoted cross-border environmental programs to reinforce shared waterways and ecosystems. Individual philanthropic foundations, as well as private investors, are exploring green bonds and other financial instruments that steer capital into resilience-building.
Despite a growing wave of interest, local governments must still navigate complex regulatory landscapes to ensure that private funding complements public solutions.
Beyond the immediate horizon
What emerges is a picture of a region on the cusp. While climate change is already reshaping winters in Bucharest, floods on the Danube, and summer temperature records in Warsaw, public awareness is catching up to this new reality.
Ongoing research suggests that, without decisive intervention, the combination of extreme weather events and slow-burn climatic changes—such as rising sea levels—may come to define life in many corners of emerging Europe.
However, the urgency of the problem has mobilised a host of actors. Policymakers are debating how best to finance adaptation schemes while maintaining economic growth. Businesses are forging partnerships with universities to test cutting-edge solutions.
Farmers are adopting more sustainable practices, and civil society groups are campaigning for stronger environmental oversight. In the process, Emerging Europe is fast becoming a regional laboratory for climate adaptation—rich in potential and challenged by the immediacy of global warming’s effects.
Ultimately, the climate story unfolding across Central and Eastern Europe echoes that of the world at large: adaptation is no longer optional. Faced with receding snowlines, intensifying heatwaves, and disruptive floods, communities from Bucharest to Sofia are learning that resilience must become embedded in everything from infrastructure planning to agricultural techniques.
It is a daunting task. But if there is a silver lining, it is that the region’s capacity for innovation and collaboration may yet enable these nations to turn the climate challenge into an impetus for progress—fostering a more sustainable, prepared, and ultimately prosperous emerging Europe.
Photo by George Serbanescu on Unsplash.
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