Don’t blame climate change for flood damage, blame David Cameron

I’m sure the families clearing up after the Christmas and New Year floods have neither the time nor inclination to wonder if the floods were caused by climate change or not. Nevertheless the question has come up, as it inevitably seems to every time there is an extreme weather event nowadays.

So, let’s look at the facts. Met Office data shows that four out of the five wettest years on record have been since year 2000. Official reports have repeatedly warned that the risk of flooding is becoming worse because of global warming. The Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) Climate Change Risk Assessment warns ‘floods and coastal erosion are already serious risks in the UK, and they are projected to increase as a result of climate change’. The classic study on the link between flooding and climate change by Myles Allen and others at Oxford University states that the likelihood of the floods in the year 2000 may have been doubled by rising greenhouse gas emissions.