Editor's Note: This article is the third installment in a RANE series on the geopolitical impacts of water stress. The first provides a broad overview of how unequal distribution of freshwater shapes geopolitical patterns. The second examines the risks of water stress destabilizing economies across the globe. More severe, widespread and frequent droughts in Europe will have increasing economic impacts on the Continent over the coming years, with lower water availability and decreased river flows particularly affecting agriculture, energy production and the industrial sector. While most of Europe has adequate water resources, water scarcity and droughts on the Continent have been increasing in frequency, scale and intensity in recent years amid rising temperatures, reduced rainfall in some regions and decreasing flows of Alpine meltwater.