For the Love of Coffee

If you are partial to a mug of the strong black stuff and can’t quite get to work until the it does, then you might not like what I’m about to say. A new report by the Climate Institute of Australia has surfaced and they have made some shocking claims that could leave coffee lovers with a bitter taste. They report that by 2080 wild coffee could be extinct…yep, you read that right, in the same month the giant panda finally came off the endangered list another part of our wildlife is now under threat!

Our beloved beverage could soon be no more as the institute also warned that “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.”

It’s believed that unless the world can limit warming to the 1.5-2-degree Celsius rise, which was set as a goal at the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement, then this prediction of a world without coffee could become a bleak reality.

The end of the coffee plant might not seem that important to you as a consumer, perhaps you think that the claims are merely scare mongering, but the fact is that unless climate change slows, coffee beans will be a thing of the past and even instant coffee is likely to be hit hard in a world of 3°C or more, so expect to pay soaring premiums for the privilege of a mediocre morning cup.

And it’s not just the coffee drinkers that will be affected; the disappearance of the coffee bean will have a profound impact on the 120 million people worldwide whose livelihoods depend on coffee farming. More than half (59 per cent) of earnings from exports in Burundi are from the product, while the beans make up a third (33 per cent) of Ethiopia’s exports and 17 per cent of Nicaragua’s.

Dramatic changes will be made as a consequence of the increasing threats to the crops as we see coffee production moving away from the equator and up into the mountains, ultimately causing deforestation. And it’s not just the rising heat that will harm the crops; climate change is expected to bring with it a spread of fungus that will ultimately devastate the plants and infest areas with pests.

Mario Cerutti, Corporate Relations Partner at Lavazza spoke out about the claims saying, “we have a cloud hovering over our head. It’s dramatically serious. Climate change can have a significant adverse effect in the short term. It’s no longer about the future; it’s the present.”

So unless you are ready to say goodbye to your Starbucks, consider what you can do to help contribute to a better world and a better climate for all.