The field of extreme event attribution is now used widely to estimate the relative roles of human-caused climate influences and other factors in the occurrence and intensity of extreme weather events. This has been extended in a smaller number of studies to assessing the human-caused climate change influence on specified impacts of a given extreme event. This study provides a framework for determining how the costs associated with an extreme weather event attributable to anthropogenic influences may be shared.
The paper uses a case study of a heatwave in China that occurred in 2018 and had substantial associated aquaculture impacts. The study provides a methodology for how the costs associated with this extreme event may be shared between citizens and envisage how such a system could look in future. The older a citizen and the more a country has emitted greenhouse gases, the higher the payment that citizen would make. As the costs associated with extreme weather events increases and the fraction of extreme events that are attributable to anthropogenic influence grows in a warming climate, it is anticipated that a framework for paying for the costs of these events may be useful.
- Paper: Lott, F.C., Ciavarella, A., Kennedy, J.J., King, A.D., Stott, P.A., Tett, S.F.B., Wang, D., 2021. Quantifying the contribution of an individual to making extreme weather events more likely. Environ. Res. Lett. 16, 104040. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abe9e9