OPEN AND SHUT CASE

2024 WITNESSED A RECORD NUMBER OF ATTRIBUTION STUDIES THAT SHOW CLIMATE CHANGE AS THE KEY FACTOR BEHIND EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS

- KIRAN PANDEY

JANUARY 2024 saw bouts of extreme cold in northern Europe, when Sweden and Finland saw the mercury plummet to levels not seen in the past 25 years. Four months later, in May, Sicily in south Italy faced a drought so severe that it had to declare emergency. Four months after that, on October 29-30, Spain witnessed exceptionally heavy rain resulting in floods that killed 200 people-the highest death toll in a flood event in Europe since 1967.

The common thread that runs through these extreme events in Europe was their trigger-climate change caused by global warming. The scientific agreement on this has become possible with the emergence of a new stream of climate science called "attribution study". Under this, scientists precisely measure the impact of climate change on a weather event, or assess if the particular event would have been different, both in frequency and intensity, without the climate change.