How is the contribution of climate change to extremes quantified?

Extreme weather and climate events have become more frequent and rigorous in recent decades. This leaves science as well as society with the important question as to which extent not only this trend but also a specific extreme event can be assigned to the ongoing global warming. In my lecture I will introduce the principles behind the attribution of extreme weather and climate events to anthropogenic climate change. I will illustrate the approach that is currently used by The World Weather Attribution initiative (https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/) for “fast-track” attribution of extreme events by using the example of the extreme drought in the Amazon River Basin in 2023. I will also put the risk of climate hazards in context to the risk of disasters and relate this to climate policy (e.g., the Loss and Damage Mechanism under the United Framework Convention on Climate Change).