Overview
- The National Academies published a 254-page update titled "Attribution of Extreme Weather and Climate Events and their Impacts" that reviews advances in methods that tie particular heat waves and heavy rainfall to human-caused warming.
- The report finds much higher confidence for links between warming and events like heat waves, hurricanes, and extreme rainfall, while noting limits for phenomena such as severe thunderstorms and tornadoes.
- Dozens of U.S. climate-damage lawsuits are already using attribution studies and the report could strengthen scientific evidence in cases such as Multnomah County’s more-than-$51 billion suit over the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome.
- Republican lawmakers have challenged the report’s authors with an April letter alleging bias and Senator Ted Cruz has sponsored the Stop Climate Shakedowns Act to bar such suits, and the administration has taken legal and regulatory steps to blunt liability efforts.
- Scientists and advocacy groups warn that the report will draw intense political scrutiny and coordinated attacks, and they say the growing speed and precision of attribution analyses make those attacks more consequential for courts, regulators and affected communities.