Climate change threatens food supplies

Extreme weather events and our warming planet are primed to strike commodities and the food supply like never before, Axios' Ayurella Horn-Muller reports. The recent global heat wave, deadly floods across China's grain belt and wildfires that spanned several continents highlight how climate change will hit the world's most-consumed food crops. Multiple economists told Axios that the long-term threat of climate change to food supply and consequences for costs of major crop commodities increasingly calls for mitigation and adaptation measures.

Corn, wheat and rice together make up roughly 42% of the world's human food calories. A 2022 Scientific Reports paper found that under global warming by 2°C (3.6°F) and relative to 1986–2005, corn yield will decrease worldwide, and increase little under global warming by 1.5 °C (2.7°F) — with the loss risk of corn by 2°C "much more serious."