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Undorf, S.* ; Dimitrova, A.* ; Harrington, L.J.* ; Hegerl, G.C.* ; Jézéquel, A.* ; Kimutai, J.* ; Lo, Y.T.E.* ; Mengel, M.* ; Perkins‐Kirkpatrick, S.* ; Pietroiusti, R.* ; Pinto, I.* ; Schurer, A.* ; Scussolini, P.* ; Sippel, S.* ; Stone, D.A.* ; Stuart-Smith, R.* ; Gudmundsson, L.* ; Huber, V. ; Colón-González, F.J.* ; Dellicour, S.* ; Erazo, D.* ; Fischer, E.* ; Frieler, K.* ; Gornott, C.* ; Hawkins, E.* ; Holden, P.B.* ; Koren, G.* ; Lampe, S.* ; Mitchell, D.* ; Murken, L.* ; New, M.* ; Nkwasa, A.* ; Seneviratne, S.I.* ; Wehner, M.* ; Thiery, W.*

Approaches, challenges and applications of climate change impact attribution.

Nat. Rev. Earth Environ. 7, 469–488 (2026)
DOI
Open Access Green as soon as Postprint is submitted to ZB.
Addressing climate change requires knowledge of its impacts on both nature and people. This Review depicts current approaches to the attribution of climate change impacts and potential uses for this information. The discussion covers how impact attribution identifies the drivers of observed changes and events that form links in the causal chain from anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and other human-induced climate forcing factors to effects on natural and human systems mediated by changes in climate and weather. Various approaches are presented that use observations and/or model simulations to estimate how a world without climate change could have evolved. In addition, different societal uses of impact attribution results are discussed and how different study designs might support them. This Review also identifies persistent knowledge gaps that call for input from policy experts globally. For example, future tailored designs might enable the attribution of additional impacts and improve quantification of the role of climate change against other drivers, whereas increased transdisciplinary collaboration and organization might provide standardization that benefits data comparability and synthesis. Addressing the remaining challenges is expected to help the impact attribution community to produce targeted answers for well-framed questions that inform development, implementation and operationalization of climate policies.
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Publication type Article: Journal article
Document type Review
Keywords Attribution ; Climate Change ; Comparability ; Operationalization ; Greenhouse Gas ; Forcing (mathematics) ; Impact Assessment ; Causal Chain; Weather Event Attribution; Extreme Weather; Greenhouse-gas; Flood Risk; Fingerprint; Temperature; Justice; System; Damage; Precipitation
ISSN (print) / ISBN 2662-138X
e-ISSN 2662-138X
Journal Nature Reviews Earth and Environment
Quellenangaben Volume: 7, Issue: , Pages: 469–488 Article Number: , Supplement: ,
Publisher Springer
Publishing Place The Campus, 4 Crinan St, London, N1 9xw, England
Reviewing status Peer reviewed
Institute(s) Institute of Epidemiology (EPI)
Grants Wellcome Trust
Elizabeth Blackwell Institute for Health Research
Cabot Institute for the Environment
University of Bristol Climate Change and Health Fellowship
AFRIVERSE project
CLIMAKID project
PROCLIAS Action Chair
EU's Horizon Europe programme
MCIN/AEI

National Research Agency
European Union
ENS-PSL MACIF Chair
European Research Council (ERC) under European Union
Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek-Vlaanderen (FWO)
ESF Investing in your future
Process-Based Models for Climate Impact Attribution Across Sectors (PROCLIAS) European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action