Australia’s Dire Climate Conditions

For many years, Australia was known as a hotspot for extreme climate conditions and weather. Due to the country’s large size and many climates, Australia’s environmental issues range from floods to droughts and fires. These great and rapid conditions cause economic damage to the government and people. Soon it will be understood, in many countries, that the climate crisis is also a financial burden and struggle for the people. The increasing insurance prices are a great example of this issue.

To discuss the need for home insurance, one needs to comprehend the environmental situation and severity of Australia. With greenhouse gas emissions, storms and floods are becoming much more frequent. The areas of most threat can be considered Queensland and New South Wales. Only in February alone, Queensland experienced massive rains in three days that had more than 70% of the average yearly rainfall. Animals were in danger, the soil became more prone to erosion and landslides, and homes were destroyed. Smaller bushfires are also expected to occur more frequently yet not as intense since nature is still continuing to heal from the catastrophic bushfires in 2020.

With such frequent climate disasters, insurance is a must in Australia for many people. From floods to fires, even the hardest work one can put in to make their home safer isn’t enough at times. Since 2004, the cost of average premium insurance has almost increased by 400%. The high prices cause Australians to make a choice between financial problems or losing their homes and belongings to a possible flood. This can be considered as an insurability crisis especially since one in 25 homes will be considered uninsurable by 2030. People also struggle with selling their homes because of the high insurance that adds to the cost. Many others move out and find affordable homes in developing, high risk neighbourhoods risking their lives. Demographer Liz Allen from the Australian National University says: "People are not moving away from climate-endangered places in Australia. And in fact, along the fringes of the major cities, they are more likely to move toward them," This also reveals the risk of promoting social, environmental inequalities amongst Australians.

The reasons for the high spike in prices is increasing material costs, distributions in the supply chain, and most importantly, climate change. However, initiatives towards the issue consist of financially helping citizens to insure their homes, restricting development in high-risk areas, or creating motives, inducements for people to upgrade their homes to disaster-resilient. The obvious pattern in these solutions is the lack of the mention of climate change and climate action. With making environmental and green changes, one would be able to fix uncountable issues. Extreme weathers would decrease, homes would be undamaged and cost friendly, the environment would begin to heal, animals would be saved and even more. As the condition of our planet is intensifying, we, as citizens, need to inform each other and additionally, persuade world leaders to finally take steps towards a greener and survivable future.

References:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-61432462

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/12/27/rising-home-insurance/

https://disasterphilanthropy.org/disasters/2022-australian-flooding/