A Brewing Storm: The climate change risks to coffee

In August the Climate Institute released ‘A Brewing Storm: The climate change risks to coffee’ – a report commissioned by Fairtrade Australia & New Zealand to investigate the impact climate change is having on coffee production around the world.

Some of their results:

• There is strong evidence that rising temperatures and altered rainfall patterns are already affecting coffee yields, quality, pests, and diseases—badly affecting economic security in some coffee regions.
• Without strong action to reduce emissions, climate change is projected to cut the global area suitable for coffee production by as much as 50 per cent by 2050.
• In the next few decades, coffee production will undergo dramatic shifts—broadly, away from the equator and further up mountains. Production will probably come into conflict with other land uses, including forests.
• Most of the world’s 25 million coffee farmers are smallholders. Alone, they have little capacity to adapt to a hotter world in which climate and market volatility conspire against them.
• Over 120 million people in more than 70 countries rely on the coffee value chain for their livelihoods.
• Many countries where coffee exports form a main plank of the economy are also amongst the most vulnerable to climate risk.