SYDNEY ¨C Wine and beer lovers face an uncertain future. While climate change is a distant consideration for many global businesses, grapes and grains are on the front line.

The good news for those who like a tipple is that alcoholic-drinks makers are among businesses leading the way in devising technology to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Gradual paucity of water for grapevines and barley is high on the agenda of companies including the world¡¯s second-largest listed vintner by market value, Treasury Wine Estates, and the world¡¯s biggest alcoholic-drinks maker, Diageo.

¡°It¡¯s something we are focused on,¡± Treasury¡¯s chief supply officer Stuart McNab said at the Reuters Global Climate Change Summit. ¡°It¡¯s treating water as a scarce and precious resource.¡±

Treasury, whose brands include Penfolds and Beringer, is testing watering pipes laid beneath the soil because rising temperatures mean too much water is being lost above ground through evaporation.

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization projects an increase of 0.3 to 1.7 degrees Celsius by 2030 in Australia¡¯s wine regions, including the Barossa where Treasury is trying out the irrigation technology. That rise is likely to reduce grape quality by 12 to 57 percent, according to CSIRO.

Diageo is also focused on water efficiency, with 23 of its global sites in areas it classifies as water-stressed, or where demand for water exceeds the amount available.

Thirteen of those sites are in Africa, where Diageo is looking to new ingredients that require less water to brew its beer.

Diageo, which generates 20 percent of its sales from beer, in 2012 launched a brew in Ghana made from cassava, a potato-like root plant that needs less water than traditional beer crops.

The London-based drinks maker aims to improve its water efficiency by 30 percent from 2007 levels by 2015.

Yet many businesses are still burying their heads in the sand. Standard & Poor¡¯s Ratings Services managing director of Infrastructure, Michael Wilkins, told the summit in London that many companies are ¡°woefully underprepared.¡±