In Donald Trump’s stunning victory last month, earning him the title of 47th president of the United States, 93% of voters cited the economy as very important to their vote. It’s worth noting, too, that the state of peoples’ wallets tends to rank higher on the list of concerns than climate change does, but the two are more closely linked than one might think. Failing to take decisive action on issues impacting the environment—like rising global temperatures, sea levels, and emissions—will cost us in more ways than one. Just two weeks after the US election, global government officials and business leaders are already urging Trump to think carefully before rolling back Biden-era protections. He’s promised to once again withdraw the US from the Paris Climate Agreement. Perhaps the prediction of massive economic losses could change the administration’s course.
Tracking the Direct and Indirect Costs of Climate Change
A study published in the journal Nature in March 2024 was the first to include “indirect economic losses” on global supply chains, along with direct costs, and the results are staggering: an estimated $25 trillion in net losses by 2050 due to climate change.
Essentially, the warmer the planet gets, the worse the economy will perform.
Direct costs include impacts like heat exposure and mortality or production stoppages due to heat or flooding, which then cascade down the supply chain with a compounding effect. Interrupting the flow of raw materials to other areas of the world adds a hitch in every step, often ending with soaring prices for consumers. Countries closest to the equator will bear the brunt of the physical consequences of climate change, including increased healthcare costs and tragic losses of life. But the knock-on effects will show up everywhere.
The world’s two biggest producers—China and the U.S.—are also the world’s two biggest polluters, highlighting the importance of these global superpowers leading the charge and addressing the impacts of climate change, even if the direct impacts appear to be mostly happening elsewhere. The U.S.’s outsized impact on production means that whatever environmental choices the new administration may make will certainly reverberate globally.
Global Cooperation Isn’t Optional
One of the study’s authors, Dr Daoping Wang of King’s College London, summed up the economic/environmental relationship, saying, “The indirect losses of heat stress highlight the need for countries to strengthen collaboration across global relevant supply-chains. For instance, our results demonstrate that the impact of a heatwave on the agriculture and food manufacturing industry in India will also impact the US food manufacturing industry severely. If the USA were to support India’s adaptation efforts through technology transfer, they would indirectly be reducing their own losses.”
Source: Nature.com
Open Supply Hub Creates the Ecosystem for Change
As we noted in a recent blog post, supply chains are not only a place where we observe the effects of climate change but a crucial place where we can work to reduce those effects. Collaboration is in Open Supply Hub’s DNA; we’re a crowdsourced map first and foremost, but we don’t stop there.
This year, we launched the Supply Chain Data Exchange (SC Dex) because we, along with our co-creators Mapped in Bangladesh and Wikirate, immediately recognized the necessity of global standards and interoperability between systems to enable collaborative climate change mitigation in supply chains.
SC Dex is a machine-readable data schema for publishing supply chain locations, specifying geographic coordinates and regions. It also expresses the relationships between these locations and organizational affiliations, improving visibility across supply chains and revealing opportunities for collaboration. Sustainable trade association Amfori, for example, transformed its due diligence tool using the OS Hub API, enabling data sharing across platforms to reduce risk and improve efficiency across due diligence efforts.
While the Open Supply Hub ID (OS ID) is the foundational identification for production locations, SC Dex crucially builds on it for standardization in terms of both interoperability and public accountability. It’s one thing to create a universal identifier; it’s another to create a community around it that proactively encourages the accessible, international buy-in necessary for its success.
What Will the Trump Administration Do?
Though Trump has repeatedly threatened action against climate regulations, what happens next remains to be seen. But if the physical concerns of climate change, the human toll, or the destruction to the planet do not resonate, perhaps applying the economic argument has a chance.
If you are a US citizen, you can use your voice to do just that: find your representatives in Congress and let them know that if their constituents care about the economy, then they care about climate change, like it or not. Internationally, the Climate Action Network has affiliates in 130 countries. Find one near you and discover what you can do today to take a stand against climate change.
OS Hub is a non-profit platform that relies on philanthropic support to sustain the world’s most complete, open and accessible supply chain map. Join us in powering the transition to safe and sustainable supply chains by making a donation today.
