France is facing mounting pressure on its energy and water systems as an extended period of high temperatures and below-average rainfall pushes river temperatures to critical levels, forcing restrictions on nuclear power generation. The country's nuclear plants depend heavily on river water for cooling, and French environmental regulations require operators to limit how much heat they discharge back into rivers — meaning output must be cut when water temperatures rise too high. Earlier this month, the state energy company EDF was forced to temporarily shut down a reactor at the Golfech nuclear power station, located on the Garonne River in southwestern France, after water temperatures approached the legal discharge threshold. Further restrictions were expected at the Nogent plant, on the Seine southeast of Paris, if river temperatures reached forecast levels from 14 July onward.

The conditions driving these energy constraints are widespread and severe. A persistent high-pressure system over western and central Europe has suppressed rainfall, enhanced evaporation and caused river levels to fall sharply across the region. In France alone, 98 of the country's 101 administrative departments are under some form of water-use surveillance — a record since 2013 — with more than 200 prefectural orders restricting activities such as car washing, private pool filling, garden watering and agricultural irrigation. Agriculture accounts for 82% of France's water consumption during July and August, intensifying competition between users. Julie Trottier, a research director at France's national scientific research centre CNRS, describes a situation where municipalities, farmers and industries are all scrambling to secure water supplies for legitimate but competing needs.

Experts point to the long-term degradation of natural water retention as an aggravating factor. More than half of France's wetlands have disappeared since the 1960s, according to the French Biodiversity Agency, as marshes and permeable land were converted into paved surfaces that prevent rainwater from replenishing underground aquifers. Restoring these natural "sponges," specialists argue, is one of the most effective tools for managing future droughts.

The heat has also ignited wildfires across the region. On the Iberian Peninsula, dangerous fires broke out in Spain's Almería province — a largely arid area in the country's southeast — driven by parched vegetation, low humidity and gusty winds. Closer to Paris, a fire believed to have been deliberately set tore through the Forest of Fontainebleau, one of France's most celebrated natural and historic landscapes, destroying around 1,300 hectares of woodland. With little significant rainfall forecast across southern and western Europe in the coming days, wildfire risk is expected to remain high and river conditions are unlikely to improve in the near term, keeping pressure on both ecosystems and energy infrastructure.