Mr Rupert Stuart-Smith
About
Rupert Stuart-Smith is a Research Associate in Climate Science and the Law at the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme. His present research interests cover the use and interpretation of climate science evidence in litigation and methodological developments in climate change attribution science. His current work also spans climate and glacier modelling, the impacts of climate change on health and strategy development for climate litigation.
Rupert's recent publications include research on the impact of climate change on glacial retreat in Peru in the context of an ongoing lawsuit (Lliuya v RWE) and the evidence needed to bring successful legal claims on the impacts of climate change. His research has been published in leading scientific journals including Nature Geoscience and Nature Climate Change.
Rupert has authored expert reports for climate lawsuits and worked as a consultant for the Foundation for International Law for the Environment (FILE), supporting the development of FILE's legal granting strategy, and for WWF-UK, Climate Analytics and Vivid Economics. Prior to joining the Sustainable Law Programme, Rupert worked towards a DPhil and holds a BA(Hons) in Geography from the University of Oxford. Rupert has also received the Alfred Steers Prize from the Royal Geographical Society, awarded to the author of best Undergraduate dissertation in a UK geography department.
Rupert's work has been featured in the global media, including by The Guardian, BBC, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Reuters, and Carbon Brief.
Expertise
- Climate litigation
- Climate change attribution science
- Climate change impacts
- Health impacts of climate change
- Climate change and glacial retreat
- Use of scientific evidence in climate lawsuits
Selected publications
- Loss and damage from climate change: A new climate justice agenda. Boyd, E. et al. (One Earth, 4(10), 1365–1370. 2021)
- Filling the evidentiary gap in climate litigation. Stuart-Smith, R.F., Otto, F.E.L., Saad, A., Lisi, G., Minnerop, P., Lauta, K.C., van Zwieten, K., & Wetzer, T. (Nature Climate Change, 11(8), 651-655. 2021)
- Increased outburst flood hazard from Lake Palcacocha due to human-induced glacier retreat. Stuart-Smith, R. F., Roe, G. H., Li, S., and Allen, M. R. (Nature Geoscience, 14(2), 85–90. 2021)
- Global Climate Change Impacts Attributable to Deforestation driven by the Bolsonaro Administration: Expert report for submission to the International Criminal Court. Stuart-Smith, R.F., et al, Otto, F.E.L. (Oxford Sustainable Law Programme. 1-97. 2021)
- Attribution science and litigation: facilitating effective legal arguments and strategies to manage climate change damages. Stuart-Smith, R.F., et al. (Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, Oxford. 2021)
- Using Detection And Attribution To Quantify How Climate Change Is Affecting Health. Ebi, K.L., Åström, C., Boyer, C.J., Harrington, L.J., Hess, J.J., Honda, Y., Kazura, E., Stuart-Smith, R.F. and Otto, F.E.L. (Health Affairs, 39(12), 2168-2174. 2020)
- Italy’s Climate Targets and Policies in Relation to the Paris Agreement and Global Equity Considerations. Wilson, R., Ganti, G., Geiges, A., Gidden, M., Stuart-Smith, R.F., Menke, I. (Climate Analytics, Berlin. 2020).
- A survey of the net zero positions of the world’s largest energy companies. Dietz, S., Jahn, V., Noels, J., Stuart-Smith, R. F. & Hepburn, C. J. (2019)
- Stuart-Smith, R.F., Roe, G.H., Li, S., & Allen, M.R. Human influence on the retreat of Palcaraju glacier (Cordillera Blanca, Peru). American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting (2019)
Media experience
Rupert Stuart-Smith has substantial experience with print media, radio and TV. Media experience includes coverage of his research, comments on extreme weather events, and other academic publications.
Recent media work
- Climate change: Courts set for rise in compensation cases (BBC News, 2021)
- New climate science could cause wave of litigation against businesses - study (The Guardian, 2021)
- 'Not just a future problem': Governments urged to plan now for more extreme weather to prevent heat deaths (Sky News, 2021)
- Human-made warming is melting Peru glacier, says study to be used in lawsuit (Reuters, 2021)
- Angst vor der Überflutung (Fear of flooding, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 2021)
- Global heating to blame for threat of deadly flood in Peru, study finds (The Guardian, 2021)
- Guest post: How attribution can fill the evidence ‘gap’ in climate litigation (Carbon Brief, 2021)
- For a City Staring Down the Barrel of a Climate-Driven Flood, A New Study Could be the Smoking Gun (Inside Climate News, 2021)
Languages
English