EU to launch climate-attribution service for extreme weather

The European Union is launching a dedicated service under its Copernicus Climate Change programme to assess how much human-driven climate change is contributing to extreme weather events, such as heatwaves and heavy rainfall. The system will use attribution science: running simulations both with and without current greenhouse gas levels to estimate the influence of climate change on each event. Funded with around €2.5 million over the next three years, the service will issue assessments twice a month, each within a week after an extreme event. For the first time, there will be a continuous “attribution office” dedicated to this work — rather than one-off studies. Experts say the data generated will help governments craft more informed climate policies, allow financial institutions to quantify climate risks more precisely, and provide a robust evidential basis for legal claims tied to climate damage. Some scientists and legal practitioners have welcomed the move. They say improved attribution tools could make it easier for impacted communities to bring cases to court and for insurers to better assess exposure.