Diana Liverman's (University of Arizona) presentation at the March CLIMAS Colloquium on March 28, 2014, entitled: "Understanding local climate impacts in the context of global supply chains"
This spring IPCC and the USGCRP will release important reports that document the potential impacts of climate change for the world and for the United States. Their reports represent the latest science and are designed to be relevant to stakeholders. In this talk, Diana Liverman will discuss the extent to which these and other assessments cover key sectors of global and regional economies and the challenges involved in understanding local climate impacts in a global economy. Assessments do not provide adequate analysis of major sectors such as manufacturing and services that underpin our economies and comprise key stakeholders. In many cases, the local effects of climate extremes and changes can only be understood in a global context - for example our food security in southern Arizona is only weakly connected to agricultural production in our region but is very dependent on climate impacts in other regions (that we import from) and on food prices that are often determined within global trading systems. Liverman will review some recent case studies and proposals to study climate and supply chains as a way to better understand climate impacts in the business sector and across the globe.