Australians ‘will have to retreat’ from living in high-risk flooding areas, says insurance expert
The insurance industry continues to count the cost of this week’s ongoing floods, with more damage expected in the central NSW region and Sydney. As of Wednesday, claims had reached 48,220, up by half in a day.
“As the climate changes, and the weather becomes more extreme, I think we’ll have to accept that in some places you just can’t treat the risk [by adaptation],” said Tom Davies, an insurance consultant who helped lead the Insurance Council of Australia’s climate strategy until December. “We’ll have to retreat.”, appealing for the federal government to double annual spending to $200m to mitigate against disasters, and for states to match the increase.
“You’ve got to stop putting homes in harm’s way … which is difficult because in particular, there’s a lot of pressure on land [development as] we need more homes,” Davies said.The director of the Australian Research Council’s centre of excellence for climate Extremes, Andy Pitman, said Australian settlements – along with many other places – were built close to rivers or the coast, or both, leaving them exposed to intense weather events.
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