In China’s Sichuan province, all factories were ordered to close for six days to conserve energy. Ships carrying coal and chemicals are finding it difficult to make their usual journeys along Germany’s Rhine River. And people living on America’s west coast have been told to use less electricity as temperatures soar. These events “have the potential to be quite significant for the particular regions affected,” said Ben May, director of global macroeconomic research at Oxford Economics. The extent of the pain may depend on how long the heatwaves and lack of rain last. But in countries like Germany, experts warn there is little relief and companies are preparing for the worst.
Extreme weather and economic slowdown
It’s not just the Rhine. Around the world, the rivers that support global growth — the Yangtze, the Danube and the Colorado — are drying up, blocking the movement of goods, disrupting irrigation systems and making it harder for power plants and factories to stay cool. At the same time, the scorching heat is disrupting transportation networks, straining power supplies and hurting worker productivity. “We shouldn’t be surprised by the heatwave events,” said Bob Ward, director of policy and communications at the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. “They are exactly what we predicted and are part of a trend: more frequent, more intense, around the world.” China is facing its worst heat wave in six decades, with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in dozens of cities. Parts of California could see temperatures as high as 109 degrees Fahrenheit this week. Earlier this summer, temperatures topped 40C in the UK for the first time. The global economy was already under pressure. Europe is at high risk of recession as energy prices soar, fueled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. High inflation and aggressive rate hikes by the Federal Reserve threaten growth in the United States. China is grappling with the fallout from tough coronavirus restrictions and a real estate crisis. “At present, we are at the most difficult point of economic stabilization,” Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said this week.
Something else to worry about
Extreme weather could exacerbate “existing friction points” along supply chains, a major reason why inflation has been difficult to reduce, said May of Oxford Economics. China’s Sichuan province, where factories shut down production this week, is a hub for semiconductor and solar panel makers. The power cut will hit factories owned by some of the world’s biggest electronics companies, including Apple ( AAPL ) Foxconn and Intel ( INTC ) suppliers. The province is also the center of China’s lithium mining industry. The outage can increase the cost of the raw material, which is a key component in electric car batteries. The neighboring city of Chongqing, which sits at the confluence of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers, also ordered factories to suspend operations for a week until next Wednesday to conserve electricity, state media The Paper reported. As a result, forecasts for China’s economy this year are already being downgraded. Nomura analysts cut their 2022 forecast for GDP growth to 2.8 percent on Thursday — well below the government’s 5.5 percent target — while Goldman Sachs cut its forecast to 3 percent. Meanwhile, Germany’s shrinking Rhine has dropped below a critical level, impeding the flow of ships. The river is a critical conduit for chemicals and grain as well as commodities — including coal, which is in higher demand as the country struggles to fill storage facilities with natural gas ahead of winter. Finding alternative forms of transit is difficult due to labor shortages. “It is only a matter of time before factories in the chemical or steel industries close down, mineral oils and building materials do not reach their destination or large and heavy transport can no longer be carried out,” said Holger Lösch, deputy director of the Federation of German Industries, he said in a statement this week. Low water levels along the Rhine shaved about 0.3 percentage points off Germany’s economic output in 2018, according to Carsten Brzeski, global head of macroeconomics at ING. But in that case, low water wasn’t a problem until late September. This time, it could reduce GDP by at least 0.5 percentage points in the second half of this year, he estimated. Economic sentiment in Germany continued to weaken in August, according to data released this week. Brzeski said the country “would need an economic miracle” to avoid falling into recession in the coming months. In the American West, an extreme drought is draining the nation’s largest reservoirs, forcing the federal government to implement new mandatory water outages. It also forces farmers to destroy crops. Nearly three-quarters of U.S. farmers say this year’s drought is hurting their crops — with a significant loss of harvest and income, according to a survey by the American Farm Bureau Federation, an insurance company and lobby group that represents agricultural interests. The survey was conducted in 15 states from June 8 to July 20 in areas of extreme drought from Texas to North Dakota to California, which accounts for nearly half the value of the nation’s agricultural output. In California – a state with high fruit and nut production – 50% of farmers said they had to remove trees and perennial crops due to drought, which will affect future income. Without significant investment in upgrading infrastructure, costs will continue to rise, noted Ward of the London School of Economics. And the impact may not be gradual. “There are signs that these heat events aren’t just getting slightly more intense and frequent over time. It’s happening in a kind of non-stepwise fashion, and that’s going to make adaptation more difficult,” Ward said. — Laura He, Shawn Deng, Simone McCarthy, Benjamin Brown, Aya Elamroussi, Taylor Romine and Vanessa Yurkevich contributed to this report.
title: “Extreme Heat Is Hitting The World S Three Biggest Economies At The Same Time Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-01” author: “Christine Campbell”
In China’s Sichuan province, all factories were ordered to close for six days to conserve energy. Ships carrying coal and chemicals are finding it difficult to make their usual journeys along Germany’s Rhine River. And people living on America’s west coast have been told to use less electricity as temperatures soar. These events “have the potential to be quite significant for the particular regions affected,” said Ben May, director of global macroeconomic research at Oxford Economics. The extent of the pain may depend on how long the heatwaves and lack of rain last. But in countries like Germany, experts warn there is little relief and companies are preparing for the worst.
Extreme weather and economic slowdown
It’s not just the Rhine. Around the world, the rivers that support global growth — the Yangtze, the Danube and the Colorado — are drying up, blocking the movement of goods, disrupting irrigation systems and making it harder for power plants and factories to stay cool. At the same time, the scorching heat is disrupting transportation networks, straining power supplies and hurting worker productivity. “We shouldn’t be surprised by the heatwave events,” said Bob Ward, director of policy and communications at the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. “They are exactly what we predicted and are part of a trend: more frequent, more intense, around the world.” China is facing its worst heat wave in six decades, with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in dozens of cities. Parts of California could see temperatures as high as 109 degrees Fahrenheit this week. Earlier this summer, temperatures topped 40C in the UK for the first time. The global economy was already under pressure. Europe is at high risk of recession as energy prices soar, fueled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. High inflation and aggressive rate hikes by the Federal Reserve threaten growth in the United States. China is grappling with the fallout from tough coronavirus restrictions and a real estate crisis. “At present, we are at the most difficult point of economic stabilization,” Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said this week.
Something else to worry about
Extreme weather could exacerbate “existing friction points” along supply chains, a major reason why inflation has been difficult to reduce, said May of Oxford Economics. China’s Sichuan province, where factories shut down production this week, is a hub for semiconductor and solar panel makers. The power cut will hit factories owned by some of the world’s biggest electronics companies, including Apple ( AAPL ) Foxconn and Intel ( INTC ) suppliers. The province is also the center of China’s lithium mining industry. The outage can increase the cost of the raw material, which is a key component in electric car batteries. The neighboring city of Chongqing, which sits at the confluence of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers, also ordered factories to suspend operations for a week until next Wednesday to conserve electricity, state media The Paper reported. As a result, forecasts for China’s economy this year are already being downgraded. Nomura analysts cut their 2022 forecast for GDP growth to 2.8 percent on Thursday — well below the government’s 5.5 percent target — while Goldman Sachs cut its forecast to 3 percent. Meanwhile, Germany’s shrinking Rhine has dropped below a critical level, impeding the flow of ships. The river is a critical conduit for chemicals and grain as well as commodities — including coal, which is in higher demand as the country struggles to fill storage facilities with natural gas ahead of winter. Finding alternative forms of transit is difficult due to labor shortages. “It is only a matter of time before factories in the chemical or steel industries close down, mineral oils and building materials do not reach their destination or large and heavy transport can no longer be carried out,” said Holger Lösch, deputy director of the Federation of German Industries, he said in a statement this week. Low water levels along the Rhine shaved about 0.3 percentage points off Germany’s economic output in 2018, according to Carsten Brzeski, global head of macroeconomics at ING. But in that case, low water wasn’t a problem until late September. This time, it could reduce GDP by at least 0.5 percentage points in the second half of this year, he estimated. Economic sentiment in Germany continued to weaken in August, according to data released this week. Brzeski said the country “would need an economic miracle” to avoid falling into recession in the coming months. In the American West, an extreme drought is draining the nation’s largest reservoirs, forcing the federal government to implement new mandatory water outages. It also forces farmers to destroy crops. Nearly three-quarters of U.S. farmers say this year’s drought is hurting their crops — with a significant loss of harvest and income, according to a survey by the American Farm Bureau Federation, an insurance company and lobby group that represents agricultural interests. The survey was conducted in 15 states from June 8 to July 20 in areas of extreme drought from Texas to North Dakota to California, which accounts for nearly half the value of the nation’s agricultural output. In California – a state with high fruit and nut production – 50% of farmers said they had to remove trees and perennial crops due to drought, which will affect future income. Without significant investment in upgrading infrastructure, costs will continue to rise, noted Ward of the London School of Economics. And the impact may not be gradual. “There are signs that these heat events aren’t just getting slightly more intense and frequent over time. It’s happening in a kind of non-stepwise fashion, and that’s going to make adaptation more difficult,” Ward said. — Laura He, Shawn Deng, Simone McCarthy, Benjamin Brown, Aya Elamroussi, Taylor Romine and Vanessa Yurkevich contributed to this report.
title: “Extreme Heat Is Hitting The World S Three Biggest Economies At The Same Time Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-09” author: “Tiffany Hensley”
In China’s Sichuan province, all factories were ordered to close for six days to conserve energy. Ships carrying coal and chemicals are finding it difficult to make their usual journeys along Germany’s Rhine River. And people living on America’s west coast have been told to use less electricity as temperatures soar. These events “have the potential to be quite significant for the particular regions affected,” said Ben May, director of global macroeconomic research at Oxford Economics. The extent of the pain may depend on how long the heatwaves and lack of rain last. But in countries like Germany, experts warn there is little relief and companies are preparing for the worst.
Extreme weather and economic slowdown
It’s not just the Rhine. Around the world, the rivers that support global growth — the Yangtze, the Danube and the Colorado — are drying up, blocking the movement of goods, disrupting irrigation systems and making it harder for power plants and factories to stay cool. At the same time, the scorching heat is disrupting transportation networks, straining power supplies and hurting worker productivity. “We shouldn’t be surprised by the heatwave events,” said Bob Ward, director of policy and communications at the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. “They are exactly what we predicted and are part of a trend: more frequent, more intense, around the world.” China is facing its worst heat wave in six decades, with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in dozens of cities. Parts of California could see temperatures as high as 109 degrees Fahrenheit this week. Earlier this summer, temperatures topped 40C in the UK for the first time. The global economy was already under pressure. Europe is at high risk of recession as energy prices soar, fueled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. High inflation and aggressive rate hikes by the Federal Reserve threaten growth in the United States. China is grappling with the fallout from tough coronavirus restrictions and a real estate crisis. “At present, we are at the most difficult point of economic stabilization,” Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said this week.
Something else to worry about
Extreme weather could exacerbate “existing friction points” along supply chains, a major reason why inflation has been difficult to reduce, said May of Oxford Economics. China’s Sichuan province, where factories shut down production this week, is a hub for semiconductor and solar panel makers. The power cut will hit factories owned by some of the world’s biggest electronics companies, including Apple ( AAPL ) Foxconn and Intel ( INTC ) suppliers. The province is also the center of China’s lithium mining industry. The outage can increase the cost of the raw material, which is a key component in electric car batteries. The neighboring city of Chongqing, which sits at the confluence of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers, also ordered factories to suspend operations for a week until next Wednesday to conserve electricity, state media The Paper reported. As a result, forecasts for China’s economy this year are already being downgraded. Nomura analysts cut their 2022 forecast for GDP growth to 2.8 percent on Thursday — well below the government’s 5.5 percent target — while Goldman Sachs cut its forecast to 3 percent. Meanwhile, Germany’s shrinking Rhine has dropped below a critical level, impeding the flow of ships. The river is a critical conduit for chemicals and grain as well as commodities — including coal, which is in higher demand as the country struggles to fill storage facilities with natural gas ahead of winter. Finding alternative forms of transit is difficult due to labor shortages. “It is only a matter of time before factories in the chemical or steel industries close down, mineral oils and building materials do not reach their destination or large and heavy transport can no longer be carried out,” said Holger Lösch, deputy director of the Federation of German Industries, he said in a statement this week. Low water levels along the Rhine shaved about 0.3 percentage points off Germany’s economic output in 2018, according to Carsten Brzeski, global head of macroeconomics at ING. But in that case, low water wasn’t a problem until late September. This time, it could reduce GDP by at least 0.5 percentage points in the second half of this year, he estimated. Economic sentiment in Germany continued to weaken in August, according to data released this week. Brzeski said the country “would need an economic miracle” to avoid falling into recession in the coming months. In the American West, an extreme drought is draining the nation’s largest reservoirs, forcing the federal government to implement new mandatory water outages. It also forces farmers to destroy crops. Nearly three-quarters of U.S. farmers say this year’s drought is hurting their crops — with a significant loss of harvest and income, according to a survey by the American Farm Bureau Federation, an insurance company and lobby group that represents agricultural interests. The survey was conducted in 15 states from June 8 to July 20 in areas of extreme drought from Texas to North Dakota to California, which accounts for nearly half the value of the nation’s agricultural output. In California – a state with high fruit and nut production – 50% of farmers said they had to remove trees and perennial crops due to drought, which will affect future income. Without significant investment in upgrading infrastructure, costs will continue to rise, noted Ward of the London School of Economics. And the impact may not be gradual. “There are signs that these heat events aren’t just getting slightly more intense and frequent over time. It’s happening in a kind of non-stepwise fashion, and that’s going to make adaptation more difficult,” Ward said. — Laura He, Shawn Deng, Simone McCarthy, Benjamin Brown, Aya Elamroussi, Taylor Romine and Vanessa Yurkevich contributed to this report.
title: “Extreme Heat Is Hitting The World S Three Biggest Economies At The Same Time Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-10-24” author: “Peter Albertson”
In China’s Sichuan province, all factories were ordered to close for six days to conserve energy. Ships carrying coal and chemicals are finding it difficult to make their usual journeys along Germany’s Rhine River. And people living on America’s west coast have been told to use less electricity as temperatures soar. These events “have the potential to be quite significant for the particular regions affected,” said Ben May, director of global macroeconomic research at Oxford Economics. The extent of the pain may depend on how long the heatwaves and lack of rain last. But in countries like Germany, experts warn there is little relief and companies are preparing for the worst.
Extreme weather and economic slowdown
It’s not just the Rhine. Around the world, the rivers that support global growth — the Yangtze, the Danube and the Colorado — are drying up, blocking the movement of goods, disrupting irrigation systems and making it harder for power plants and factories to stay cool. At the same time, the scorching heat is disrupting transportation networks, straining power supplies and hurting worker productivity. “We shouldn’t be surprised by the heatwave events,” said Bob Ward, director of policy and communications at the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. “They are exactly what we predicted and are part of a trend: more frequent, more intense, around the world.” China is facing its worst heat wave in six decades, with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in dozens of cities. Parts of California could see temperatures as high as 109 degrees Fahrenheit this week. Earlier this summer, temperatures topped 40C in the UK for the first time. The global economy was already under pressure. Europe is at high risk of recession as energy prices soar, fueled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. High inflation and aggressive rate hikes by the Federal Reserve threaten growth in the United States. China is grappling with the fallout from tough coronavirus restrictions and a real estate crisis. “At present, we are at the most difficult point of economic stabilization,” Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said this week.
Something else to worry about
Extreme weather could exacerbate “existing friction points” along supply chains, a major reason why inflation has been difficult to reduce, said May of Oxford Economics. China’s Sichuan province, where factories shut down production this week, is a hub for semiconductor and solar panel makers. The power cut will hit factories owned by some of the world’s biggest electronics companies, including Apple ( AAPL ) Foxconn and Intel ( INTC ) suppliers. The province is also the center of China’s lithium mining industry. The outage can increase the cost of the raw material, which is a key component in electric car batteries. The neighboring city of Chongqing, which sits at the confluence of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers, also ordered factories to suspend operations for a week until next Wednesday to conserve electricity, state media The Paper reported. As a result, forecasts for China’s economy this year are already being downgraded. Nomura analysts cut their 2022 forecast for GDP growth to 2.8 percent on Thursday — well below the government’s 5.5 percent target — while Goldman Sachs cut its forecast to 3 percent. Meanwhile, Germany’s shrinking Rhine has dropped below a critical level, impeding the flow of ships. The river is a critical conduit for chemicals and grain as well as commodities — including coal, which is in higher demand as the country struggles to fill storage facilities with natural gas ahead of winter. Finding alternative forms of transit is difficult due to labor shortages. “It is only a matter of time before factories in the chemical or steel industries close down, mineral oils and building materials do not reach their destination or large and heavy transport can no longer be carried out,” said Holger Lösch, deputy director of the Federation of German Industries, he said in a statement this week. Low water levels along the Rhine shaved about 0.3 percentage points off Germany’s economic output in 2018, according to Carsten Brzeski, global head of macroeconomics at ING. But in that case, low water wasn’t a problem until late September. This time, it could reduce GDP by at least 0.5 percentage points in the second half of this year, he estimated. Economic sentiment in Germany continued to weaken in August, according to data released this week. Brzeski said the country “would need an economic miracle” to avoid falling into recession in the coming months. In the American West, an extreme drought is draining the nation’s largest reservoirs, forcing the federal government to implement new mandatory water outages. It also forces farmers to destroy crops. Nearly three-quarters of U.S. farmers say this year’s drought is hurting their crops — with a significant loss of harvest and income, according to a survey by the American Farm Bureau Federation, an insurance company and lobby group that represents agricultural interests. The survey was conducted in 15 states from June 8 to July 20 in areas of extreme drought from Texas to North Dakota to California, which accounts for nearly half the value of the nation’s agricultural output. In California – a state with high fruit and nut production – 50% of farmers said they had to remove trees and perennial crops due to drought, which will affect future income. Without significant investment in upgrading infrastructure, costs will continue to rise, noted Ward of the London School of Economics. And the impact may not be gradual. “There are signs that these heat events aren’t just getting slightly more intense and frequent over time. It’s happening in a kind of non-stepwise fashion, and that’s going to make adaptation more difficult,” Ward said. — Laura He, Shawn Deng, Simone McCarthy, Benjamin Brown, Aya Elamroussi, Taylor Romine and Vanessa Yurkevich contributed to this report.
title: “Extreme Heat Is Hitting The World S Three Biggest Economies At The Same Time Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-20” author: “Dylan Lobur”
In China’s Sichuan province, all factories were ordered to close for six days to conserve energy. Ships carrying coal and chemicals are finding it difficult to make their usual journeys along Germany’s Rhine River. And people living on America’s west coast have been told to use less electricity as temperatures soar. These events “have the potential to be quite significant for the particular regions affected,” said Ben May, director of global macroeconomic research at Oxford Economics. The extent of the pain may depend on how long the heatwaves and lack of rain last. But in countries like Germany, experts warn there is little relief and companies are preparing for the worst.
Extreme weather and economic slowdown
It’s not just the Rhine. Around the world, the rivers that support global growth — the Yangtze, the Danube and the Colorado — are drying up, blocking the movement of goods, disrupting irrigation systems and making it harder for power plants and factories to stay cool. At the same time, the scorching heat is disrupting transportation networks, straining power supplies and hurting worker productivity. “We shouldn’t be surprised by the heatwave events,” said Bob Ward, director of policy and communications at the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. “They are exactly what we predicted and are part of a trend: more frequent, more intense, around the world.” China is facing its worst heat wave in six decades, with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in dozens of cities. Parts of California could see temperatures as high as 109 degrees Fahrenheit this week. Earlier this summer, temperatures topped 40C in the UK for the first time. The global economy was already under pressure. Europe is at high risk of recession as energy prices soar, fueled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. High inflation and aggressive rate hikes by the Federal Reserve threaten growth in the United States. China is grappling with the fallout from tough coronavirus restrictions and a real estate crisis. “At present, we are at the most difficult point of economic stabilization,” Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said this week.
Something else to worry about
Extreme weather could exacerbate “existing friction points” along supply chains, a major reason why inflation has been difficult to reduce, said May of Oxford Economics. China’s Sichuan province, where factories shut down production this week, is a hub for semiconductor and solar panel makers. The power cut will hit factories owned by some of the world’s biggest electronics companies, including Apple ( AAPL ) Foxconn and Intel ( INTC ) suppliers. The province is also the center of China’s lithium mining industry. The outage can increase the cost of the raw material, which is a key component in electric car batteries. The neighboring city of Chongqing, which sits at the confluence of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers, also ordered factories to suspend operations for a week until next Wednesday to conserve electricity, state media The Paper reported. As a result, forecasts for China’s economy this year are already being downgraded. Nomura analysts cut their 2022 forecast for GDP growth to 2.8 percent on Thursday — well below the government’s 5.5 percent target — while Goldman Sachs cut its forecast to 3 percent. Meanwhile, Germany’s shrinking Rhine has dropped below a critical level, impeding the flow of ships. The river is a critical conduit for chemicals and grain as well as commodities — including coal, which is in higher demand as the country struggles to fill storage facilities with natural gas ahead of winter. Finding alternative forms of transit is difficult due to labor shortages. “It is only a matter of time before factories in the chemical or steel industries close down, mineral oils and building materials do not reach their destination or large and heavy transport can no longer be carried out,” said Holger Lösch, deputy director of the Federation of German Industries, he said in a statement this week. Low water levels along the Rhine shaved about 0.3 percentage points off Germany’s economic output in 2018, according to Carsten Brzeski, global head of macroeconomics at ING. But in that case, low water wasn’t a problem until late September. This time, it could reduce GDP by at least 0.5 percentage points in the second half of this year, he estimated. Economic sentiment in Germany continued to weaken in August, according to data released this week. Brzeski said the country “would need an economic miracle” to avoid falling into recession in the coming months. In the American West, an extreme drought is draining the nation’s largest reservoirs, forcing the federal government to implement new mandatory water outages. It also forces farmers to destroy crops. Nearly three-quarters of U.S. farmers say this year’s drought is hurting their crops — with a significant loss of harvest and income, according to a survey by the American Farm Bureau Federation, an insurance company and lobby group that represents agricultural interests. The survey was conducted in 15 states from June 8 to July 20 in areas of extreme drought from Texas to North Dakota to California, which accounts for nearly half the value of the nation’s agricultural output. In California – a state with high fruit and nut production – 50% of farmers said they had to remove trees and perennial crops due to drought, which will affect future income. Without significant investment in upgrading infrastructure, costs will continue to rise, noted Ward of the London School of Economics. And the impact may not be gradual. “There are signs that these heat events aren’t just getting slightly more intense and frequent over time. It’s happening in a kind of non-stepwise fashion, and that’s going to make adaptation more difficult,” Ward said. — Laura He, Shawn Deng, Simone McCarthy, Benjamin Brown, Aya Elamroussi, Taylor Romine and Vanessa Yurkevich contributed to this report.
