Pinning extreme weather on climate change: Best ideas of the century

image via New Scientist

January 19, 2026, 4:00 PM

• •Attribution science has evolved to link specific extreme weather events to climate change.
• •Early research by Allen and Stott pioneered the methods for attributing climate change to extreme events.
• •World Weather Attribution provides rapid analysis of extreme weather events.
• •Attribution studies are now used as evidence in climate lawsuits and for climate reparations.

Pioneering climate scientists Myles Allen and Peter Stott began attributing individual weather events to climate change, a previously impossible task. Stott and Allen's research demonstrated the link between human activities and extreme weather events like the 2003 European heatwave. The launch of World Weather Attribution in 2014 further accelerated this process, providing rapid analysis of extreme weather events and their connection to climate change. This advancement has opened the door for climate lawsuits and reparation payments, fundamentally changing how we understand and address the impact of climate change.

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