Europe's 2024 drought and heat: crop losses in six charts

Europe's 2024 summer heat and drought damaged crop yields across multiple regions, with wildfires compounding losses. Carbon Brief's analysis – presented in six charts – maps the scale of agricultural failure and its implications for food security and farmer resilience.

Extreme heat reduces photosynthesis and accelerates water loss in plants. Prolonged drought depletes soil moisture, blocking nutrient uptake. Together, they stunt growth at critical stages – flowering, grain fill, fruit development. Wildfires destroy not just crops but also farm infrastructure and topsoil.

The data matters because European agriculture underpins food supply across the continent and beyond. When yields collapse, prices rise. Supply chains strain. Smallholder and tenant farmers – those with least financial buffer – face immediate income shock. Some will not replant; others will shift to different crops or leave farming entirely.

This isn't new. The pattern repeats: 2022 drought in France, Italy, Spain; 2023 floods in Central Europe; 2024 heat across the breadth of the EU. Climate models project further intensification – longer dry spells, sharper heat peaks, less predictable rainfall.

Farmers are adapting: changing planting dates, shifting crop types, investing in irrigation. But adaptation is capital-intensive. Smallholders can't afford it alone. Governments and insurers face mounting pressure to backstop losses – which raises hard questions about who bears the real cost of climate change, and whether agricultural subsidy should reward climate preparedness rather than production volume.

The question isn't whether European farming will change. It will. The question is whether that change happens by plan or by crisis.

How this summer’s heat and drought impacted crops in Europe – in six charts

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