The following provides details of some events that resulted in significant impacts on supply chains or essential services.
While events such as flooding, heatwaves, drought, storms and hurricanes have always happened their severity has increased as a result of climate change.
This highlights that the effects of climate change are being felt now. Immediate and future risks to supply chain resilience and essential services have therefore increased significantly.
Table 3: Examples of real impacts on supply chains from climate change
|
Event |
Detail |
Impact |
|
July 2021 flooding in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany. |
Increased late shipments between 26% and 32% |
|
|
Waterways drought 2022, 2023 and 2024.
|
Drought lowered water levels of several key waterways in 2023, including the Mississippi, Rhine and Yangtze and the strategically important Panama Canal. |
Reduction in transit of goods. |
|
Automobile and semiconductor industries: A combination of drought and heat waves caused water scarcity. |
Resulted in rationing of hydroelectric power, shutting down factories in Sichuan province, and upending supply chains for the automobile and semiconductor industries. |
|
|
|
Major flooding affected manufacturing facilities. |
Disruptions in European supply chains |
|
Major flooding in India’s Chennai region. |
Many manufacturing plants forced to close. |
|
|
Critical goods: Low water levels in Rhine. |
Made Europe's busiest waterway unnavigable for critical goods, driving up logistics costs by up to 400%. |
|
|
ICT and auto: Submerged manufacturing hubs. |
Caused a global shortage of hard disk drives (HDD) and impacted major automakers. |
|
|
Food*: Reduced water availability. |
Threatens production of almonds, grapes, and tomatoes. |
|
|
Food*: Extensive flooding. |
Destroyed crops and interrupted the supply of commodities like soy and peanuts. |
|
|
India Cotton Industry – heat (ongoing).
|
Cotton: Extreme heat and erratic rainfall have reduced yields. |
Forced apparel industry to explore alternative, more resilient materials. |
|
Hurricane Maria & Puerto Rico, 2017 and North Carolina 2024. |
Pharmaceuticals: Puerto Rico is a major hub for pharmaceutical manufacturing, producing roughly 10% of all drugs consumed in the United States. Baxter International’s North Cove plant in North Carolina produces approximately 60% of the US supply of IV fluids and a significant portion of peritoneal dialysis (PD) solutions |
The hurricane destroyed the island's electrical grid. Baxter International, a primary manufacturer of small-volume intravenous (IV) saline bags (250 ml or less), had its facilities crippled. A four-month supply disruption led to nationwide shortages of basic IV fluids, forcing US hospitals to ration supplies, delay surgeries, and seek alternative, less efficient, or more expensive products. The 2024 hurricane caused severe shortages which persisted into 2025. |
|
IT infrastructure: During the July 2022 UK heatwave, temperatures in London reached 40°C. |
Cooling systems failed at two data centres supporting London’s largest NHS trust. This resulted in a critical IT outage at Guy’s and St Thomas’, and Evelina London hospitals, causing over 100 treatment delays. |
*DP World – climate disruption in perishable supply chains, December 2025, highlighted that 93% of cargo owners report climate-related disruption as a key operational variable. Temperature extremes, flooding and droughts are now regular occurrences. In the last 3 years:
