New reports, published in Nature show that greenhouse gas emissions are making extreme rainfall events more common and, in the UK, have increased the risk of flooding.

Using real-world data and computer models, one team claims it has proven the link between greenhouse emissions and the observed increase in extreme rains in the Northern Hemisphere.

Another team says greenhouse warming made the UK floods of 2000 more likely.

Experts suggest that lawsuits for compensation against energy companies will be more likely to succeed.

The research may also have billion-dollar consequences by determining which countries benefit from the future $100bn-a-year UN adaptation fund which aims to build resilience against the impacts of climate change.

"This is ground-breaking work," said Professor Bob Watson, chief scientific adviser to the department of the environment and former chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Until now, he said, scientists could state that global warming was expected to cause more extreme weather, but not that it was to blame for any specific event. "The research shows human-induced climate change is not an issue for the next decades or century: it is an issue facing us today."

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To read the Guardian summary