Climate & sustainability

Drought risk. Romania’s First Biennial Transparency Report records extreme drought years in every decade since 1901, with more droughts after 1981, and puts the arid, semi-arid and sub-humid areas of Dobrogea, Moldova, the southern Romanian Plain and the Western Plain at about 30% of the territory¹. A 2016 national risk assessment found 48% of agricultural land vulnerable to drought, especially in the south and south-east². On satellite data, agricultural drought affected 30.8% of the territory in 2012, 20.1% in 2022 and 17.5% in 2024³. The World Bank describes 2022 as the most severe drought on record, when water supplies were disrupted in 220 localities and hydropower output fell by one third². In 2025 June was the driest month on record, with a rainfall deficit of 78%, and by the end of August severe to extreme soil drought covered almost the whole country¹. The EU allocated Romania up to EUR 21.6 million after the heat, hail and drought of July 2024, up to EUR 11.5 million after the spring frosts of 2025 and up to EUR 14.8 million after the summer drought of 2025⁴⁵⁶.

Irrigated land. The 2023 farm survey counted 443,870 ha of irrigated land, 3.5% of utilised agricultural area, against 240,020 ha in 2016⁷. The EU-27 share was 6.5%⁸. Sprinklers were used on 397,070 ha, and off-farm supply networks served 263,830 ha of the irrigated area⁹. Under Law No. 133/2017 the National Agency for Land Improvement (ANIF) bears the cost of water and pumping energy for beneficiaries who request irrigation water¹⁰. The area under ANIF water contracts rose from 323,027 ha in 2014 to 1,047,302 ha in 2024 and was 996,905 ha in 2025, when ANIF prepared its main infrastructure for 1,823,300 ha^11121314. Contracted area differs from irrigated area. In 2021, the latest year for which the ANIF activity reports give both figures, 374,111 ha were effectively irrigated against 860,332 ha under contract¹⁵.

Rehabilitation of the schemes. Government Decision No. 793 of 26 October 2016, published in Monitorul Oficial No. 879 of 2 November 2016, approved the National Programme for the Rehabilitation of the Main Irrigation Infrastructure (PNI) for 89 viable schemes on 1.8 million ha, and Government Decision No. 988 of 3 August 2022, published in Monitorul Oficial No. 783 of 5 August 2022, extended it to 155 schemes on 2.3 million ha¹¹¹⁰¹⁶. ANIF’s 2025 report puts the efficiency of pumping stations in the first-stage schemes at 40% and water losses on transport canals at 60%, against 75% and 30% expected after rehabilitation¹³. Works executed under the programme rose from RON 292.6 million in 2020 to RON 1,161.6 million in 2025, about US$260 million at the 2025 average rate (own calculation)¹⁷¹³¹⁸. The World Bank reported in 2023 that gravity-fed schemes of about 250,000 ha were less than 15% utilised, and that the CAP Strategic Plan 2023–2027 allocates EUR 400 million to modernise on-farm irrigation and EUR 85 million to new small systems².

Warming. The National Meteorological Administration (ANM) ranks 2024 as the warmest year in both of its national series, with a mean of 11.62 °C on 129 stations, followed by 2023, 2019 and 2025²¹. Its trend estimate is a warming of 2.3 °C over 1961–2024 and 1.5 °C over 1900–2024¹⁹. On gridded data the 2016–2025 average was 11.24 °C, 2.09 °C above the 1961–1990 average (own calculation)²². The intensity of summer heat, the sum of maximum temperatures of 32 °C or more in June–August, averaged 44 units in 2011–2020 against 13 units in 1961–1990¹.

Rainfall. ANM finds no conclusive trend in annual precipitation over 1961–2025, and 2025, at 578.3 mm, was 13.4% below the 1991–2020 median²¹. Rainfall on agricultural land averaged 575.1 mm in 1981–2010, and Dobrogea averaged 410.2 mm per agricultural year (September–August) in 1981–2010¹. The driest years on gridded data since 1901 were 2000 (446 mm) and 2011 (478 mm)²³.

Projections. CMIP6 models project median warming of 1.74 °C by 2040–2059 under an intermediate scenario and 2.36 °C under very high emissions, rising to 2.84 °C and 5.27 °C by 2080–2099, against 1995–2014²⁴²⁵. Under very high emissions median annual precipitation is 96 mm lower by 2080–2099²⁵. The EURO-CORDEX projections cited in the BTR show about +2 °C (RCP4.5) to +4 °C (RCP8.5) by 2071–2100 against 1971–2000, with larger increases in the southern regions¹.

Emissions. Romania emitted 95.59 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent in 2024 excluding land use and forestry, 68.9% less than in the 1989 base year²⁸²⁹. Agriculture emitted 17.31 million tonnes, 18.1% of the total, against an EU-27 share of 11.9% (own calculations)²⁹. Agricultural emissions were 53.0% below 1989, which the inventory attributes to fewer livestock, a smaller rice area, lower crop production and less synthetic nitrogen fertiliser²⁸. Enteric fermentation produced 8.37 million tonnes and managed soils 6.62 million tonnes in 2024, and agriculture accounted for 47% of national methane and 88% of nitrous oxide emissions (own calculations)²⁹. Land use and forestry removed a net 31.01 million tonnes, while cropland was a net source of 4.85 million tonnes²⁹.

Targets. Under the amended Effort Sharing Regulation Romania must cut emissions from transport, buildings, agriculture, waste and small industry by 12.7% from 2005 by 2030, against 2% before 2023³⁰. These emissions were 73.9 million tonnes in 2023, within that year’s allocation of 75.8 million tonnes, but the projection with existing measures, 68.7 million tonnes in 2030, exceeds the 2030 allocation of 68.3 million tonnes¹. The land-use target is net removals of 25,665 kt CO2e in 2030³¹. The updated National Energy and Climate Plan, submitted on 14 October 2024, aims at climate neutrality by 2050, and the Commission noted that it lacked information on policies and measures addressing nitrous oxide from agricultural soils³². The Long-Term Strategy (Government Decision No. 1215/2023) and the National Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change 2024–2030 (Government Decision No. 1010 of 14 August 2024, Monitorul Oficial No. 823 of 19 August 2024) complete the framework, and in January 2026 Romania had no single framework law on climate change¹³³.

Water and soil. In 2021 Romania applied its nitrates action programme to the whole territory instead of designated vulnerable zones, and the Commission's report of that year listed it among Member States with pollution hot spots not sufficiently addressed³⁴. Average nitrate concentration in groundwater rose from 13.40 mg/l in 2010 to 15.51 mg/l in 2023³⁵. JRC model estimates put 12.0% of agricultural land excluding pastures under severe water erosion of more than 10 tonnes per hectare a year in 2016, against 8.5% in the EU-27³⁶. ANIF operated 650 anti-erosion schemes on 2.226 million ha and 443 drainage schemes on 3.086 million ha in 2022¹⁰. Forests covered 6.96 million ha in 2025³⁷, and the national inventory foresees a considerable drop in the productivity of lowland and hill forests after 2040²⁸.

Danube Delta. With a total surface of 4,178 km², the Danube Delta is the second largest delta in Europe and was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1991¹. The Romanian part is a Ramsar wetland of 647,000 ha, a site that also covers transitional and marine zones, designated on 21 May 1991, and a biosphere reserve, where the 1996 Ramsar summary lists fishing, forestry, small-scale cultivation and tourism³⁸. In 2025 parts of Dobrogea, including the delta, received less than 400 mm of rain²¹.