A new E.U. service will determine how warming is reshaping weather. Its findings, experts say, could help insurers better understand climate risks and help advocates hold polluters accountable for climate damages.
Scientists with the Copernicus Climate Change Service will publish two reports a month on the role of warming in recent extreme weather, Reuters reports. It will be the first time that Copernicus will have an office devoted to attribution, the field of research concerned with discerning how emissions have shaped weather disasters.
The service could aid insurance companies in determining how warming is altering the risks from extreme weather. “Financial institutions understand risk, and risk has to be quantified, and this is one way of quantifying,” Johan Rockström, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, told Reuters.
Attribution research could also be a tool for attorneys looking to bring suit against companies, such as fossil fuel producers, that are driving warming. “We want to have the most information available,” Erika Lennon, of the Center for International Environmental Law, told Reuters. “The more information we have about attribution science, the easier it will be for the most impacted to be able to successfully bring claims to courts.”
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