Scientists warn of climate threat to chocolate
The Peninsula
Paris: Climate change drove weeks of crop withering temperatures last year in the West African countries that underpin the world s chocolate supply, h...
Paris: Climate change drove weeks of crop-withering temperatures last year in the West African countries that underpin the world's chocolate supply, hitting harvests and likely further stoking record prices, researchers said on Wednesday.
Farmers in the region -- which account for some 70 percent of global cacao production -- have struggled with heat, disease and unusual rainfall in recent years, which have all contributed to falling production. That has caused an explosion in the price of cocoa, which is produced from the beans of the cacao tree, and is the main ingredient in chocolate.
A new report found that "climate change, due primarily to burning oil, coal, and methane gas, is causing hotter temperatures to become more frequent" in Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria.
The study, by the independent research group Climate Central, found the trend was particularly marked in Ivory Coast and Ghana, the two biggest cacao producers.
Using observational data from 44 cacao-producing areas in West Africa and computer models, the researchers compared today's temperatures with a counterfactual of a world without the effects of climate change.
