Prost, Ganbei, Cheers: Climate Change Means Less Beer

If you crave a pint (or two) at the end of a hard day, brace yourself: climate change is poised to make your favourite lager, ale or IPA more scarce and pricey.

Paris, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Oct, 2018 ) :If you crave a pint (or two) at the end of a hard day, brace yourself: climate change is poised to make your favourite lager, ale or IPA more scarce and pricey.

On current trends, a crescendo of heatwaves and droughts will periodically cause sharp declines in barley yields, a crucial ingredient in most beer, according to a study published Monday.

"Decreases in the global supply of barley lead to proportionally larger decreases in barley used to make beer," said lead author Dabo Guan, a professor of climate change economics and the University of East Anglia in Britain.

Only the highest quality grain -- less than 20 percent -- is used to make beer, with most of the rest used as feedstock.

"High-quality barley is even more sensitive to extreme weather events linked to climate change," Guan told AFP.

During severe climate events, global beer consumption would decline by 16 percent, or nearly 30 billion litres -- equal to all the beer quaffed each year in the United States, Guan and an international team of researchers reported in the journal Nature Plants.

Beer prices in the wake of these disruptive weather events would, on average, double.

By volume, beer is by far the most popular alcoholic drink in the world, with nearly 200 billion litres produced in 2017.

Some countries will get hit harder by beer shortages and higher bar tabs than others, the study found.

In China -- whose 1.3 billion people collectively down more brew than any other nation -- consumption would fall by a staggering 4.3 billion litres in a bad year.

Britain would also get thirsty during a severe barley crunch, with consumption dropping by up to 1.3 billion litres, and the price of a pint doubling.

Per capita, most of the top-20 beer-drinking nations are in Europe, along with the United States, New Zealand and Australia.