Climate change is coming for your Christmas favorites

A little indulgence over the festive season is our reward for enduring a curious and challenging year. But brace yourselves once more, for many treats we're looking forward to are already under threat from climate change.

Verisk Maplecroft's newly released Climate Change Exposure Index (CCEI) highlights that changing weather patterns over the coming decades are likely to impact the quantity — and quality — of a range of festive goods, from fine wines to perfume to Christmas nibbles.

For consumers, climate change may affect the price and availability of the goods we're buying. But for luxury products, the more significant threat is that the exclusive characteristic of a brand that makes it so desirable could be irretrievably altered.

For example, Champagne and port are so synonymous with their point of origin that near-identical goods produced outside of those regions are considered inferior. Yet even a small change in climate conditions in these regions could mean that they are no longer as well suited for growing their famous products.

Read the GreenBiz story by Will Nichols - “Climate change is coming for your Christmas favorites.”