While today’s Q&A focuses on climate change and coffee, the panel has highlighted how much broader this issue really is. An insightful example is one provided by Emma Pinchbeck about WWF’s Sumatran elephant conservation work:

the coffee farmers, faced with changing weather and reduced yields, are extending their fields and ranges, and coming into contact with elephants. In turn, this is leading to more human/elephant conflict (in both directions, I should add)

On the question of crop diversification in the context of coffee and climate change, Macatonia says:

We encourage livelihood diversification - it is key to create resilience. We have developed a bee-keeping project with smallholder coffee farmers in Guatemala. The benefit is additional income from selling honey, biodiversity, cross pollination, supplements diet. The training program also developed entrepreneurial skills

Steven Macatonia, co-founder of Union Hand-Roasted Coffee, says helping farmers adapt to a changing climate requires collaboration with other stakeholders:

For example we’ve been supporting a project, Weathersafe.co.uk where the latest satellite technology is utilized to predict weather patterns - this information is available to coffee producers in Rwanda, mobile phone technology. We are hoping this project can be scaled up, it is currently backed by NASA.

Hugo Villela, regional agribusiness specialist from Oikocredit, says that farmers can modify their techniques to help cope with a changing climate:

To face [a] drop in rain it’s important to manage the shadow on coffee crops, [...] with trees in different altitudes and avoid [exposing] soil directly to sunlight.

Panellist Emma Pinchbeck, WWF-UK’s head of climate change and energy, makes an important point about climate change and inequality:

Climate change is happening already- but its impacts will not be distributed equally. The physical impacts will be worse in areas around the equator, for example. The distributed impacts will be worse for communities that are poor, especially if they’re dependent for their income on natural resources. One of those resources is coffee - 1/4 of Ethopians make a living from growing coffee, for example.

Coffee production provides work for more than 120 million of the world’s poorest people. Climate change, however, is a mounting threat.

Rising temperatures in Central America are fuelling the growth of the devastating leaf disease known as coffee rust (pdf), leading to drops of 30% or more in coffee production in the region.

In Ethiopia, where an estimated 25% of the population depends directly or indirectly on coffee for their livelihoods, climate change is also having a profoundly negative impact, with production predicted to significantly decrease in certain areas.

What can be done? Join us on Tuesday 20 September, 2-3pm (BST), to debate how to protect coffee and support the people who rely on this vital commodity.

Questions we will explore include:

• from diversifying to relocating, how can farmers become more resilient to climate change?
• where does technology fit in?
• who’s funding this support and how can that money be put to best use?
• how to reach the most vulnerable coffee growing communities?

Aaron Davis, senior research leader of plant resources, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Steven Macatonia, co-founder, Union Hand-Roasted Coffee

Emma Pinchbeck, head of climate and energy policy, WWF

Hugo Villela, regional agribusiness specialist, Oikocredit

Moderator - Tess Riley, deputy editor, Guardian Sustainable Business

Further panellists TBC. If you’re interested in joining our panel, please email tess.riley@theguardian.com

You can send questions in advance by emailing tess.riley@theguardian.com or tweeting @GuardianSustBiz using the hashtag #AskGSB

Make sure you’re a registered user of the Guardian and join us in the comments section below, which will open on the day of the live chat.