Climate change threatens global coffee supply to wild coffee or extinction

Australia's nonprofit Climate Insitue released a report this month warning that climate change will seriously endanger coffee supplies around the world.

The report, titled "Storms in the Making," details the impact of climate change on coffee farms and makes predictions about future coffee supplies.

The study predicts that by 2050, rising temperatures and extreme weather conditions could reduce the area suitable for growing coffee globally by up to half.

In addition to the loss of suitable land, the report stressed that warming would amplify the threat of diseases and pests such as coffee rust and coffee berry borers. A 2011 report showed that berry borers alone cost the coffee industry millions of dollars a year.

Stable temperature and precipitation are suitable for coffee cultivation, while also ensuring the delicious taste of coffee. According to the report, Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Ethiopia and Vietnam, which are the most suitable countries for growing coffee from various combinations of climatic factors, have become increasingly unsuitable for growing coffee due to changes in weather conditions brought about by climate change.

The report also predicts that wild coffee should go extinct in the coming decades if nothing is done to combat climate change.

John Connor, CEO of the Climate Institute, said at a news conference that people around the world now consume about 2.25 billion cups of coffee every day.

Molly Harriss Olson, director of Fairtrade Australia and new Zealand, a non-governmental organisation, said coffee was a lifeline for 125 million people, some of whom were marginalized and poor in developing countries. "If we don't do something soon, the consequences will be devastating for these people."

The Climate Research Institute commissioned the study by the Fair Trade Associations of Australia and new Zealand. These conclusions are based on previous studies, collated, compared and analyzed by the Climate Research Institute.

The New York Times quoted industry sources as saying that although the public may not be aware of the impact of climate on coffee, the coffee industry, especially large coffee companies, has long been aware of the problem and prepared for it. Starbucks (54.43, 0.04, 0.07%), for example, says it has been providing assistance programs to coffee growers for the past few years.

But Doug Welsh, a board member of the coffee company-funded World Coffee Research, argues that no coffee company is strong enough to tackle climate change on its own, because some of the measures taken by the institute are more adaptive than preventive--assuming warming will be the norm.

One project, for example, aims to create a gene bank to preserve Arabica coffee's genetic diversity. The agency also created a "sensory lexicon" to evaluate new varieties developed by coffee growers, and recorded the resistance of various coffee beans to pests, their yield, and their ability to survive at certain heights.

But even the group admits there are "significant gaps in our knowledge on how best to help coffee growers adapt to climate change."

"Of course, no one wants to see any coffee extinct, but extinction is possible and we have to be prepared for it." Welsh of the World Coffee Institute says so