IC28: What are climate change attribution studies?

Show notes

Unfortunately, this week the audio quality is a little wonky. Better next week! This week, we dive into one of the key scientific topics in climate change: attribution science. So basically, the science that helps us make statements such as "this flood has been made X times more likely and Y times more severe because of climate change". That's event attribution. But then, there's also trend attribution, source attribution and impact attribution. We get into all of this, how it works, and more.

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Sources

• Carbon Brief (November 2024), Q&A: The evolving science of ‘extreme weather attribution' (https://www.carbonbrief.org/qa-the-evolving-science-of-extreme-weather-attribution/))
• Carbon Brief (last update March 2026), Mapped: How climate change affects extreme weather around the world (https://interactive.carbonbrief.org/attribution-studies/index.html))
• Union of Concerned Scientists (March 2025), What Is Attribution Science? (https://www.ucs.org/resources/attribution-science))
• Ettinger et al. (April 2021), “What’s Up with the Weather?” Public Engagement with Extreme Event Attribution in the United Kingdom (https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/wcas/13/2/WCAS-D-20-0155.1.xml))
• State of Vermont (accessed April 2026), Climate Superfund Act (https://climatechange.vermont.gov/climate-superfund))