We are not convinced by Oxfordshire County Council's claim this week that climate change has cost it £16.4m. Its attempts to put a figure on what is being billed as the biggest challenge to our future wellbeing and prosperity is laughable. It adds very little to the debate.

We do not wish to knock the seriousness of the issue. Scientific opinion across the globe is virtually unanimous that we are facing serious changes to the climate.

There are many who question that scientific opinion and downplay the effects of climate change. If we are to understand and appreciate fully what is going on, then the evidence before us needs to be robust.

Oxfordshire County Council's efforts seem to have been written on the back of a cigarette packet.

They have simply taken a series of weather events and put a cost against them.

The cost of recent floods, we are told, is down to climate change. No mention of poor and inadequate drainage. No mention of the amount of building we have done on the flood plain. No recognition, either, that areas like Botley Road in Oxford have a record of flooding that predates by many decades the notion of global warming.

The same can be said of hot weather. We have had hot weather and droughts before, and damage has been done to the roads.

We are not trying to argue that there is no such thing as global warming. We just do not think Oxfordshire County Council's figures are sound.