In this seminar, Dr Rupert Stuart-Smith will explore the critical role of climate science in addressing the climate crisis

In this session of the Cambridge Seminar Series on Law and the Climate Crisis, Rupert Stuart-Smith will present, 'Climate change attribution science: can it establish causation in court?'. Join the discussion at 3pm on Friday 27 November, and stay for the refreshments and networking which follow.

If you are unable to attend in-person, please join via the Zoom link below:

[LINK TO FOLLOW]

Seminar synopsis

Two decades of attribution research have shed light on the impacts of climate change occurring worldwide. The first wave of attribution research quantified climate change impacts on the intensity and probability of extreme weather events and slow-onset changes in glaciers and sea levels. Over the past decade, impact attribution studies have extended these methods to assess the attributable impacts of extreme events on agriculture, health, economic losses and biodiversity. Concurrently, source attribution research quantified individual emitters’ contributions to climate change impacts.

Steady progress towards being able to quantify individual emitters’ contributions to specific losses has brought us closer to true ‘end-to-end’ attribution. This lecture will explore how these scientific developments have paved the way for better-evidenced legal claims on climate change impacts, and whether the science available today might meet legal standards for causation.

About the speaker

Dr Rupert Stuart-Smith is the Deputy Director and a Senior Research Fellow in Climate Science and the Law at the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme, University of Oxford.

Description supplied by the event organiser.