Research by the University of Exeter suggests that there is no evidence that climate change is promoting coffee leaf rust, according to Exeter. Scientists found “no evidence for an overall trend in disease risk in coffee-growing regions of Colombia from 1990 to 2015, therefore, while weather conditions were more conducive to disease outbreaks from 2008 to 2011, we reject the climate change hypothesis.”
Colombian coffee production fell by 40 percent from 2008-11 and while the decline was linked to coffee leaf rust outbreak, Dr. Dan Bebber, lead author of the study, noted that there was a “perfect storm” of factors that led to favorable conditions for coffee leaf rust.
