In this session of the Cambridge Seminar Series on Law and the Climate Crisis, Dr Rupert Stuart-Smith (University of Oxford) will talk about ‘Climate change attribution science: can it establish causation in court?’. Come to the David Attenborough Building (CB2 3QZ) to hear Dr Stuart-Smith speak at 3pm on 27 November 2026, and stay for refreshments and networking afterwards.
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.