Patton, Lindene; Barnes, Felicia H. --- "Science and the law: how will developments in attribution science affect how the law addresses compensation for climate change effects?" [2017] ELECD 1027; in Hutter, M. Bridget (ed), "Risk, Resilience, Inequality and Environmental Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 147

Book Title: Risk, Resilience, Inequality and Environmental Law

Editor(s): Hutter, M. Bridget

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781785363795

Section: Chapter 8

Section Title: Science and the law: how will developments in attribution science affect how the law addresses compensation for climate change effects?

Author(s): Patton, Lindene; Barnes, Felicia H.

Number of pages: 20

Abstract/Description:

This chapter discusses the gap between science and the law in the climate change arena and how it has impacted attempts to address the risks, losses, and damages related to climate change in a comprehensive fashion. Recent attribution science developments, which seek to determine if the magnitude or frequency of an event has been changed by anthropogenically induced climate change, have raised complex questions regarding how to allocate 'damages' from climate change-related effects. Questions of loss and damage implicate the role of insurance in responding to climate change-related impacts and the added complexity climate change brings to the insurance process. This chapter also addresses the increasing climate resilience gap that has left greater and greater portions of damages caused by extreme climatic events unfunded. Insurance may play an integral role in closing this climate resilience gap in order to manage these risks efficiently, particularly if insurance is involved up front, rather than in a post-loss litigation setting. This chapter closes by drawing together the host of complex legal questions raised by improvements in attribution science and continued losses and damages from climate change.