Page - 113 - in Loss and Damage from Climate Change - Concepts, Methods and Policy Options

Chapter5 Attribution:HowIsItRelevant forLoss andDamagePolicyandPractice? RachelA.James,RichardG.Jones,EmilyBoyd,HannahR.Young, FriederikeE.L.Otto,ChristianHuggelandJanS.Fuglestvedt Abstract Attribution has become a recurring issue in discussions about Loss and Damage(L&D).Inthishighly-politicisedcontext,attributionisoftenassociatedwith responsibilityandblame;andlinkedtodebatesaboutliabilityandcompensation.The aimof attribution science, however, is not to establish responsibility, but to further scientific understanding of causal links between elements of theEarth Systemand society.Thisresearchintocausalitycouldinformthemanagementofclimate-related risksthroughimprovedunderstandingofdriversofrelevanthazards,or,morewidely, vulnerability and exposure;with potential benefits regardless of political positions onL&D.Experience shows that it is neverthelessdifficult tohaveopendiscussions about thescienceinthepolicysphere.This isnotonlyamissedopportunity,butalso problematic in that it could inhibitunderstandingofscientific resultsanduncertain- ties, potentially leading topolicyplanningwhichdoesnot have sufficient scientific R.A. James (B) ·F.E.L.Otto EnvironmentalChange Institute,UniversityofOxford,Oxford,UK e-mail: rachel.james@eci.ox.ac.uk E.Boyd LUCSUS,LundUniversity,Lund,Sweden C.Huggel DepartmentofGeography,UniversityofZurich,Zurich,Switzerland J.S.Fuglestvedt CICERO,Oslo,Norway R.A. James DepartmentofOceanography,UniversityofCapeTown,CapeTown,SouthAfrica R.G. Jones SchoolofGeographyand theEnvironment,UniversityofOxford,Oxford,UK R.G. Jones MetOfficeHadleyCentre,Exeter,UK E.Boyd DepartmentofGeography,UniversityofReading,Reading,UK H.R.Young DepartmentofMeteorology,UniversityofReading,Reading,UK ©TheAuthor(s)2019 R.Mechler et al. (eds.),LossandDamage fromClimateChange,ClimateRisk Management,PolicyandGovernance,https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72026-5_5 113