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Liability for climate change

Nature volume 421, pages 891–892 (2003)Cite this article

Will it ever be possible to sue anyone for damaging the climate?

As I write this article in January 2003, the flood waters of the River Thames are about 30 centimetres from my kitchen door and slowly rising. On the radio, a representative of the UK Met Office has just explained that although this is the kind of phenomenon that global warming might make more frequent, it is impossible to attribute this particular event (floods in southern England) to past emissions of greenhouse gases. What is less clear is whether the attribution of specific weather events to external drivers of climate change will always be impossible in principle, or whether it is simply impossible at present, given our current state of understanding of the climate system. The issue is important as it touches on a question that is far closer to many of our hearts than global sustainability or planetary survival — who to sue when the house price falls?

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Figure 1: How we might be able to calculate liability for climate change.
Figure 2

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  1. Myles Allen: He is writing here purely in his capacity as the chap at number 73 who was after some sandbags on Saturday 4 January.

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  1. the Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3PU, UK

    Myles Allen

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Correspondence to Myles Allen.

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Allen, M. Liability for climate change. Nature 421, 891–892 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/421891a

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