From Wildfires to Courtrooms: How Attribution Science Fuels Climate Justice 

On January 9, as deadly wildfires raged across the Los Angeles area, destroying thousands of structures and displacing tens of thousands of residents, Columbia University hosted the first day of its Attribution Science and Climate Law Conference. Co-organized by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and the Columbia Climate School, the conference brought together scientists, legal experts, policymakers and advocates to explore how advancements in climate attribution science can shape litigation, policy and governance.Attribution science is a rapidly evolving field that aims to explain how human-induced climate change intensifies and influences the frequency of extreme weather events. The destruction unfolding in California offers yet another reminder of the urgency of these discussions, and the critical need for science-driven legal and policy solutions to the climate crisis.Kicking off the conference, Michael Burger, executive director of the Sabin Center, reflected on the genesis of the event. “Eight years ago, in the wake of Donald Trump’s election, the seeds of this collaboration were planted,” he said. Burger recounted how his discussions with climate scientist and professor Radley Horton and legal scholar Jessica Wentz inspired an interdisciplinary approach to understanding attribution science’s potential for informing legal frameworks.Burger highlighted the urgent stakes of the moment, marked by environmental rollbacks and climate change’s accelerating impacts around the world. “This field has grown from niche to necessity,” he said, citing the increasing reliance on attribution research in courts—from the International Court of Justice to national jurisdictions—and its critical role in corporate accountability.Understanding Attribution ScienceRather than pinpointing causation, attribution science raises critical questions about the extent to which climate change amplifies the severity or likelihood of events like hurricanes, heat waves and droughts. For example, one of the first major studies in attribution science analyzed the European heat wave of 2003, linking human activities to an increased probability of the devastating event.By comparing observed weather patterns with simulations of a world untouched by human-induced warming, scientists are uncovering the fingerprints of climate change with increasing precision. While natural variability continues to play a role, attribution science highlights how the climate crisis exacerbates events that were once rare, making them more frequent and more destructive.Horton, a professor at the Columbia Climate School, introduced the morning session, spotlighting the legacy and contributions of Ben Santer and Gavin Schmidt, whose work was seminal in detecting and attributing human influence on climate systems.Santer pioneered the field of climate “fingerprinting,” tracing the evolution of attribution science from the cautious conclusions of the first Intergovernmental Panel