Attribution science is increasingly being used to link individual companies to specific climate harms. A new, free tool aims to make it even easier.
As the tobacco industry learned, these efforts may prove akin to trying to hold back the tide, especially as public awareness of the field grows and access widens—as one Australian research team is attempting to do with the Carbon Impacts Tracer. Professor Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, a climate scientist with Australian National University and a coordinating lead author for the next IPCC report, leads the team that sought to expand on the work in the October 2025 study published in the journal Climate Action that looked at Australian petroleum giant Woodside’s contribution to climate change. She says the goal was to make the latest attribution science free and easy to access.
“The field of attribution has grown rapidly in the last 20 years,” Perkins-Kirkpatrick says. “It’s had an evolution and this is the next phase of the evolution. Finally, we can show with a reasonable degree of certainty how every tonne of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere does really matter.”
The tool, funded by the Australian National University, the Lethal Humidity Global Council and 21st Century Weather, is intended for use by anyone—journalists, campaigners, planners, government assessors, litigators, activists, and even fossil fuel companies. The Lethal Humidity Global Council is financially supported by the Minderoo Foundation, the personal charity of Australian iron ore billionaire Andrew Forrest.