Economic and Social Impacts of Climate Change on Wine Production

Relationships between climatic change and agriculture are numerous and complex because they involve interdependent systems that develop over the time, leading to mutual influences which are both environmental and socioeconomic. Peculiar elements of such issues are the lack of linearity and uncertainty. It is recognized by scientists everywhere in the world that since the beginning of the past century the average global temperature has increased by about 1.4F and in the past two decades, through private- and government-sponsored initiatives, attention to the worsening climate crisis is increasing across the world The effects of global warming include an increase in atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide and temperature. Apart from temperature increases, the changes will be characterized by rising sea levels and unpredictable weather patterns of precipitation, more frequent extreme weather events, and by the general adaptation necessity to a higher variability of climate conditions. With rising interest in global warming and its consequences on agriculture, a growing body of literature has been studying the different potential economic and social impacts of climate change on the production of grapes and wine over time, focusing on both consequences that operators are already facing or will face in the near future (shot-term effects) and consequences forecasted in the long run to have structural consequences for the wine industry (long-term effects).