Climate change doubled likelihood of devastating UK floods of 2000

Researchers have for the first time quantified the part climate change played in increasing the risk of a severe floodGlobal warming made the floods that devastated England and Wales in the autumn of 2000, costing £3.5bn, between two and three times more likely to happen, new research has found. It is the first time scientists have quantified the role of human-induced climate change in increasing the risk of a major flood and represents a major development in climate science."It shows climate change is acting here and now to load the dice towards more extreme weather," said Myles Allen of Oxford University, who led the work, which he started after his own home was nearly flooded in 2000. It will also have wider consequences, say experts, by making lawsuits for compensation against energy companies brought by people affected by climate change more likely to succeed. It may also have billion-dollar consequences...

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