Covid-19 Hit Supply Chains Hard. Climate Shocks May Hurt More
Companies aren’t doing enough to map out risks from freak weather, say experts.
An Amazon fulfillment center in Kentucky damaged by December’s tornadoes.
Photographer: Drone Base/ReutersThis article is for subscribers only.
The pandemic has tied a series of paralyzing knots in the global economy, but beyond the transportation delays and parts shortages lies a more enduring challenge for supply chains: climate change.
Consider that last year alone saw Hurricane Ida, a typhoon near Chinese ports, the Texas freeze, British Columbia flooding, and freak December tornadoes across the U.S., and it’s clear that global trade is struggling to cope with much more than a health crisis. As temperatures creep higher, nature is likely to be a more frequent, intense, and random economic disrupter.