Food prices and overall inflation will rise as temperatures climb with climate change, a new study by an environmental scientist and the European Central Bank found. Looking at monthly price tags of food and other goods, temperatures and other climate factors in 121 nations since 1996, researchers calculate that “weather and climate shocks” will cause the cost of food to rise 1.5 to 1.
Gernot Wagner, a climate economist at Columbia University's business school who wasn't part of the research, said what he calls “climateflation” is “all too real and the numbers are rather striking.” Kotz and European Bank economists looked at 20,000 data points to find a real-world causal link between extreme weather, especially heat, and rising prices. They then looked at what's projected in the future for climate change and saw sticker shock.