Impacts and risks of climate change for trade infrastructure

This report, produced by the Stockholm Environment Institute in partnership with the European Climate Foundation, examines how climate-related risks and impacts affect physical infrastructure essential for global trade, specifically focusing on marine, land-based, and air transport over the next 25 to 30 years and beyond.

• Climate change disrupts global trade infrastructure through both sudden extreme weather events and slow-onset impacts. Extreme events like floods and hurricanes damage ports, bridges, railways, and roads, while sea level rise poses long-term risks to trade-dependent infrastructure, leading to increased costs, delays, and disrupted trade patterns.
• The global economy is highly vulnerable to climate impacts due to the interconnected nature of global value chains and a reliance on imports from a limited number of geographically concentrated production centers located in climate-vulnerable regions.
• The report analyzes the impact of sea-level rise, heat, storms, drought, flooding, and water scarcity on three primary transport sectors—marine, land-based, and air—and references specific trade chokepoints, including the Suez Canal, to illustrate recent disruptions.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2023). Impacts and risks of climate change for trade infrastructure. https://www.sei.org/publications/impacts-risks-climate-change-trade-infrastructure/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Impacts and risks of climate change for trade infrastructure. 2023. https://www.sei.org/publications/impacts-risks-climate-change-trade-infrastructure/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Impacts and risks of climate change for trade infrastructure |date=20 December 2023 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/impacts-risks-climate-change-trade-infrastructure/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2023impacts, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Impacts and risks of climate change for trade infrastructure}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2023}, month = dec, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/impacts-risks-climate-change-trade-infrastructure/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }