Report predicts climate change threatens key coffee-growing regions

Xinhua News Agency, London, June 19 (Reporter Zhang Jiawei) If you like drinking coffee, then you have one more reason to pay attention to climate change. A new study says that if global warming is not curbed, Ethiopia, a major coffee-producing country, will be greatly affected, and in the worst case nearly 60% of the country's coffee-growing areas may no longer be suitable for growing coffee crops.

Ethiopia is Africa's largest exporter of coffee beans, and most of the coffee beans it produces are of high quality. In Ethiopia, growing coffee crops is the livelihood of about 15 million farmers, and coffee bean export revenue accounts for one quarter of the country's total export earnings.

Researchers from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in the United Kingdom worked with Ethiopian counterparts, combining remote-sensing satellite data, field surveys and computer models to infer the impact of climate change on Ethiopia's coffee-growing areas.

The results published in the latest issue of the British journal Nature Plants show that if temperatures continue to rise and no countermeasures are taken, 39% to 59% of Ethiopia's existing coffee-growing areas may no longer be suitable for growing coffee crops by the end of this century.

However, the study also says that if comprehensive measures such as relocating coffee-growing areas, forest conservation and restoration are taken early to respond to the related threats, then the area in Ethiopia suitable for growing coffee could instead increase by at least 4 times. The report also classified coffee-growing areas according to the degree of impact from climate change, for the reference of policymakers.