12. Future Climate Wealth of Nations’ Winners and Losers

A broad spectrum of climate zones has never been defined as asset and comparative edge in free trade—but climate change will require territories being more flexible in terms of changing economic production. The more climate variation a nation state possesses, this chapter argues, the more degrees of freedom a country has in terms of GDP production capabilities in a differing climate. Future wealth of nations is introduced by the concept of climate flexibility defined as the range of temperature variation of a country. In a changing climate, temperature range flexibility is portrayed as a future asset for international trade of commodities. Climate flexibility is viewed as a production flexibility driver leading to comparative advantages of countries. These preliminary insights aid in answering what financial patterns can we expect given predictions the earth will become hotter. Already now, the degree of climate flexibility is found to be related to human migration inflow. In the future, climate flexibility is predicted to determine future climate wealth of nations in a climate changing world. The previously defined climate change winner and loser index will be blended with the novel insights on climate flexibility, leading to an unprecedented outlook on future climate wealth of nations. Lastly, future climate change induced market changes are pegged to scarcity of agriculture production and a prospect of commodity price spikes is given.