News

19 August 2024

Today Zali Steggall MP moved a motion to help Australians cope with the rising cost of living and insurance by better funding climate adaption. This is in response to the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events and the rising cost insurance premiums. 

The Member for Warringah moved the motion ahead of a climate risk roundtable she is hosting at Parliament House tomorrow which is bringing together stakeholders including economist Guy Debelle and others from the insurance, public policy sector and local government to discuss the urgent need to better address managing climate risks and costs.

Zali Steggall MP said: “Climate risks are a problem we are facing right now. Severe weather events are already costing the economy over $38 billion per year and are predicted to rise to at least $73 billion annually by 2050.

Extreme weather is driving risks and insurance costs through the roof, further fuelling inflation and putting huge pressure on households. I’m calling on the Government to better fund climate adaptation and resilience building.”

This includes to: 

1. Allocate funding to the Resilient Building Council to expand the home and business Resilience Ratings scheme to incentivise home adaptation measures and put downward pressure on insurance;
   
   
2. Allocate funding to expand the Australian Sustainable Finance taxonomy to include adaptation, to unlock global capital for private sector led resilience;
   
   
3. Include climate resilience and adaptation as a matter of priority in upcoming updates to the National Construction Code and require resilience for all government investments;
   
   
4. Accelerate the development of a national standard for climate adapted planning controls;
   
   
5. Ensure equitable access to insurance by helping lower income households and communities facing home insurance stress and underinsurance in high-risk areas.

Today, the Insurance Council of Australia released its annual Catastrophe Report – noting last year’s extreme weather events led to almost 157,000 claims and $2.2 billion in insured losses and has highlighted the risk of underinsurance.

(…over)

“To address the cost of living we must address climate change! We urgently need to reduce and mitigate emissions to limit global warming, to at least a 75% reduction below 2005 levels by 2035, but we also must protect our communities by being clear about the scale and challenges our communities and small businesses face with accelerating climate risk.

I call on the government to prioritise this investment to acknowledge how climate change is increasing the cost of living, so we can put downward pressure on insurance costs, and take the heat out of inflation.”