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Extreme weather pushes UK food prices up, New Zealand unveils its first national climate adaptation framework and more in this week’s roundup.
Climate impacts drive UK food price surge
Extreme weather is fuelling food inflation across the UK, according to a new Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) analysis. Prices for butter, beef, milk, coffee and chocolate, which are among the most climate‑exposed foods, rose 15.6% over the past year, compared with just 2.8% for other food and drink.
Though these items make up only 11% of the average basket, they account for nearly 40% of food price inflation, suggesting climate impacts now outweigh domestic factors like wages or taxation.
The Bank of England warned in August that rising food prices are hindering efforts to meet its 2% inflation target. Dry conditions have pushed up domestic production costs for beef and dairy, after a historically hot summer in the UK.
Imported staples face similar pressures. Cocoa prices have more than tripled in three years after extreme heat and rainfall devastated harvests in West Africa. Since 2024, coffee prices have spiked due to droughts in Brazil and Vietnam. According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, coffee price shocks take around a year to filter through to retail prices with effects lasting at least four years.
ECIU’s Chris Jaccarini said “climate shocks are a big factor … until we reach net zero, households will keep seeing prices rise.”
New Zealand launches national climate adaptation plan
Wellington has unveiled its first National Adaptation Framework, setting 30-year resilience plans for areas most vulnerable to flooding and coastal hazards. These plans will set out proposed actions, costs and funding strategies. The framework also includes development of a National Flood Map, with an initial version expected by 2027.
The framework lays out responsibilities for government, insurers and local authorities, including a national flood map by 2027.
Kris Faafoi, CEO of the Insurance Council of New Zealand, said political consensus is essential. “The challenges of climate change won’t wait for electoral cycles. What’s needed now is enduring broad-based political support so that adaptation work continues with certainty, no matter who is in government,” he said.
Capping Africa’s debt costs could save lives
A study by the African Center for Economic Transformation revealed that limiting debt servicing to 14% of revenue could unlock billions for basic services.
ACET president and CEO Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi said African governments currently spend nearly 17% of revenues just to service debt, often paying more to creditors than for health and education.
According to the analysis, limiting Egyptian debt repayments to 5% of government revenue would enable universal access to clean water and sanitation while eliminating maternal mortality. In Angola, reducing debt costs to 14% of revenue would avoid the deaths of more than 700 mothers in childbirth and 8,000 children under five annually.
Owusu-Gyamfi said: “Every dollar used to pay debt is a dollar that could change a life.”
The findings came as leaders of the World Bank and IMF gathered in Washington for the annual meetings where debt reform and climate finance were central topics of discussion.
Harvard University launches climate-financial risk initiative
Harvard University’s Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability has launched a joint research programme with thinktank Resources for the Future (RFF) to analyse how climate change affects global financial and macroeconomic stability.
The programme brings together economists, finance scholars, private‑sector leaders and policymakers to study how physical hazards and energy‑transition dynamics propagate through credit and insurance markets, amplify macroeconomic volatility, and interact with fiscal and monetary policy.
Janet Yellen, former US Treasury Secretary, said sound, evidence‑based research is essential for safeguarding economic prosperity in a warming world. “This Salata‑RFF Initiative will deliver the rigorous analysis that financial authorities, companies, and communities need to manage climate‑related macroeconomic risks,” she said.
The advisory committee includes Kevin Stiroh, former executive vice‑president at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Robert Litterman, former chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s climate‑related market risk subcommittee.
Research
Temperature Sensitivity, Mispricing, and Predictable Returns – Management Science
New research finds that firms highly exposed to temperature fluctuations have lower future profitability and riskier corporate behavior. Markets underreact to this climate sensitivity, creating predictable mispricing that yields an annualised 4% risk‑adjusted return from strategy-based correction.
Biodiversity and Finance: Risk, Disclosure and Double Materiality – Ecological Economics
This special issue examines how nature‑related financial risks feed back into markets and corporate balance sheets. Researchers assess sovereign and corporate exposures to biodiversity loss and explore how disclosure frameworks like the Taskforce on Nature‑related Financial Disclosures can align investment decisions with ecological limits.
Climate Finance Shadow Report 2025 – Oxfam and Care Climate Justice Centre
Oxfam and Care reveal that developing nations now repay $7 for every $5 borrowed in climate finance loans. With 65% of support delivered as debt, rich‑country profiteering is amplifying vulnerability and deepening inequality, leaving low‑income states less able to adapt or recover.
This page was last updated October 22, 2025
Written by
Ike Walker, a Green Central Banking contributor since 2023, has a decade's experience in research writing. An Utrecht-based scholar, Ingrid specialises in transformative justice, green finance, law and systems change. They are an Utrecht University's Bright Minds scholar and previously worked for Cambridge University and various justice-based NGOs.
