Coffee's Future Looks Bitter as Climate Change Hits, from Brazil to Vietnam - Bloomberg
Coffee’s Future Looks Bitter as Climate Change Hits, from Brazil to Vietnam - Bloomberg
A worker harvests coffee cherries at a farm in Buon Ma Thuot, Dak Lak, Vietnam, in November. Photographer: Maika Elan/Bloomberg
Climate Change Is Making Your Coffee More Bitter and Expensive
In Vietnam, the world’s top producer of hardy robusta beans, farmers have not been spared the impact of increasingly erratic weather.
For coffee lovers, the brew of the future is shaping up to be bitter and pricey, as climate change parches the world’s key growing regions.
Increasingly erratic weather is putting crops at risk globally. Hardier varieties are expected to fare better, and for coffee that means strong, earthy robusta. But in Vietnam, the top producer of these beans, alarm bells are ringing.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”