FAIRTRADE COFFEE PRODUCERS AND THE CLIMATE CHALLENGE
Photograph: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images
The UK-based Fairtrade Foundation is hoping to establish new links between British retailers and small farmers, which can help tackle the impact of climate change on supplies of some of the world's tastiest coffee, argues the article Fairtrade Coffee Producers Face Challenge Of Climate Change published by the Guardian.
In the past year, coffee prices have soared to an all-time high as production of the most aromatic and widely used type of bean, arabica, has suffered from unusual weather conditions worldwide. The Head of Public Policy at the Fairtrade Foundation said, "We are very concerned. The small-scale and poorer farmers we work with are the most vulnerable and they need support". The Fairtrade Foundation aims to act as a broker between retailers, which can buy carbon credits as a way of offsetting their energy use, and small farmers who can create credits to earn money by planting trees or using more environmentally friendly ways to light or heat their homes.
Read Fairtrade's position paper on climate change in our Facts & Figures section.
