How climate is making Australia more unliveable

By Shaimaa Khalil and Tiffanie Turnbull in Brisbane

In the past three years, record-breaking bushfire and flood events have killed more than 500 people and billions of animals. Drought, cyclones and freak tides have gripped communities.

Climate change is a key concern for voters in Australia’s election on Saturday. So is the cost of living - and these issues are converging like never before.

Australia is facing an “insurability crisis” with one in 25 homes on track to be effectively uninsurable by 2030, according to a Climate Council report. Another one in 11 are at risk of being underinsured.

Insurance for the highest-risk homes will be prohibitively expensive or refused by providers, says the Climate Council, which created an interactive map for Australians to search.

Nowhere is this a bigger issue than in Queensland. It is home to almost 40% of the 500,000 homes projected to be effectively uninsurable.

Queensland has been ravaged by floods in recent months. In February, the state capital Brisbane had more than 70% of its average yearly rainfall in just three days.

Insurers say the floods - which also battered New South Wales - will become Australia’s most expensive flood event ever. But even before this year, insurance costs were skyrocketing.

Though rising property prices are one factor, Australia’s peak insurance industry body points the finger at climate change.

The Insurance Council of Australia says no parts of the country are currently uninsurable but there are “clearly affordability and availability concerns”.

Over the past decade, the amount paid out by insurers on damage claims from natural disasters has roughly doubled.

On average, consumers now pay almost four times for home insurance premiums than in 2004.

In northern Australia, these numbers are even more extreme - in some cases 10 times higher than elsewhere.

More Australians are being forced to underinsure - purchase cheaper policies that cover too little - or forgo insurance altogether.

The phenomenon could also exacerbate social inequality and create “climate ghettos”, says Climate Valuation, a risk analysis company.

Properties in higher-risk areas are becoming cheaper to buy and rent, often attracting people who are least able to afford adequate insurance, compounding the financial impact of disasters.

The government has promised billions to help “reinsure” insurers against major claims resulting from disasters, arguing it will essentially halve premiums for people in northern Australia.

But it is a risky policy, and not one either the Insurance Council of Australia or the country’s industry watchdog wanted.

Critics have pointed out that disasters are now frequently devastating areas outside northern Australia that won’t be covered by the policy. What about their premiums?

They’re instead calling for the government to limit development in high-risk areas, consider buying out some homeowners, or create incentives for people to make their properties disaster-resilient.

But the obvious answer is addressing climate change, Dr Settle says - though this is something successive governments have been reluctant to do.

After massive bushfires in 2019-20, Australians were warned to prepare for an “alarming” future of simultaneous and worsening disasters.

Yet for a nation so exposed to climate change, Australia remains one of the world’s biggest emitters per head of population.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government has promised to reduce emissions by 26% by 2030. Labor, under Anthony Albanese, has pledged a 43% cut.

Both are below the 50% recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Blimey, the situation seems dire … :scream:

(There is much more in the article.)

I hope not my son lives there .
However we were there in Feb we were exposed to the full force of La Niña which caused widespread flooding . As he lives on a mountain he was not flooded but the deluges cause huge slips andlandfalls on the roads leading up the mountain .

Another thing to add to the list! Serves them right though. Whatever happened to the plague of mice?

Very concerning. It all seems to be coming in so quickly now .

It doesn’t matter who you vote for or how much emissions are cut, it won’t stop climate change.

We often have plagues of mice apparently.
When they harvest the grain ,it’s not stored in the silos then.Firstly they leave it in big piles covered with tarpaulin in the fields.Guess who thinks that’s a good idea?

Parts of the country have received up to four times their average October rainfall in just 24 hours.

At least 500 homes have been flooded, one person has died and another is missing as the disaster unfolds.

Widespread flooding across Australia - driven by a La Niña weather pattern - has killed more than 20 people this year.

Victoria - Australia’s second most populous state - has been worst hit this week. Several communities have been ordered to evacuate, including some in the state capital Melbourne. Floods have swamped roads, forced school closures and cut power to 3,000 houses and businesses.

Premier Daniel Andrews said the number of inundated homes was “absolutely certain to grow”, calling it one of the state’s worst flood events in decades. “This has only just started, and it’s going to be with us for a while,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Many areas received massive 24-hour rainfall totals, but the highest was in Strathbogie, north-east of Melbourne. It received 220mm - more than double the town’s average October rainfall, or about a third of London’s annual average.

Several rivers have also flooded in Tasmania after up to 400mm of rain fell in some areas in 24 hours. It is unclear how many homes and business have been affected there.

In New South Wales, about 600 people were told to evacuate from the town of Forbes, where about 250 properties and business were expected to flood.

More rain is forecast in the coming weeks, placing strain on already swollen rivers and saturated ground. Experts say recent flooding in Australia has been worsened by climate change and a La Niña weather phenomenon. In Australia, a La Niña increases the likelihood of rain, cyclones and cooler daytime temperatures.

Blimey … that’s bad … :scream:

@Omah , Don’t forget that in most of those cases the average local
rainfall is only about 20mm p.a. !
So treble that figure should be welcomed imo ??
They should be celebrating not bemoaning ?? :+1::grin::grin::+1:

it’s not spread evenly DM and you know that of course! So I sit here in the west at top 30’s temps and no rain at all - we did have one pollie once promoting the carrying of water from the top end of WA all down to the south - not sure of those facts anymore but \I think he was an Indigenous MP called Bridges?? and I think he was suggesting half moon shaped pipe open and exposed to the elements and some people were concerned that the wild camels rather like yourself woudld be coming along and shitting in them. But I don’t think any animal shits in its own drinking water surely

and we do have water piped to kalgoorlie from perth via pipes and engines?

@gumbud , Wot are Wild camels doin in ozzie for Christ’s sake ??
Who’s plan woz that ? :thinking::thinking:

They live in the Northern territories and were originally imported to work there but have gone feral .

Australia flash flooding: Thousands evacuated - BBC News (video)

Areas of Australia have seen the country’s fourth major flooding this year in areas of the South West and North East. Dozens of schools have been forced to close and thousands of homes are without power as a result.

Blimey … it just got worse … :scream:

The speed and depth of that water , very frightening

yes and all small popn towns [villages] most of the time certainly no major cities affected?

That is true:

I heard that Rishi is trying to encourage young people from the UK to travel there and work (as part of the current trade deals underway) He should probably get some plumbers trained up first so they can help out!

hahahah yes all trades req’d except ladies of the night?

You do realise that the distance between the flood at the top of your map and the flood at the bottom is about the same as the distance between London and Milan don’t you?

The water is moving west. Eugowra is between Cowra and Forbes

The Murray Darling Basin is one of the biggest river systems in the world

https://www.mdba.gov.au/sites/default/files/images/pubs/Murray-Darling_Basin_Boundary.jpg

The flood will have a big effect on agricultural exports (and food prices) in coming months

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Thats awful Bruce :frowning_face: Such a massive area, it’s hard to comprehend the sheer vastness of it all, and the damage it does to everything around it.

Don’t worry next season’s crop will probably be a record one. Then we will be back in drought and it will all be forgotten. It’s happened before and it will happen again.