Worst storm in Brisbane in 10 years - all resources called in for massive clean up

Insurance Australia Group’s submission to the Professor Ross
Garnault’s Climate Change Review inquiry said this:

“IAG anticipates a likely increase in both the cost and the variability of weather-related claims as a result of climate change.

Severe weather events affecting heavily populated regions are a significant driver of property insurance costs in Australia.

As referenced in the Garnaut Review’s Issues Paper, IAG-sponsored research indicates that the frequency and/or severity of cyclones over south-east Queensland and hailstorms over the Sydney Basin are expected to increase as a result of climate change.”

Although the evidence is sparse, it appears that weather related natural disasters are climbing in line with a warming planet.

The past 19 out of 20 major Australian insurance events were weather related, and this increase reflects European insurance findings.

The average number of annual disastrous weather and climate related events in Europe doubles over the 1990s compared with the previous decade according to the European Environmental Agency.  Earthquakes and other non-climatic events remained stable over the same time period.

This graph developed by Munich Re, the world’s largest re-insurance group, highlights the significant increase in economic and insurance losses (the dollar cost of damage done and the portion of this cost that was insured) when we compare great weather related disasters during the 1990s compared to previous decades.

Some portion of this dollar comparison arguably is due to reasons other than climate change such as growing capital investment, population and migration to areas where disasters hit.

But climate change must feature strongly in the explanation if we observe the sheer number of significant events: 70 during the 1990s compared to 44 in the 1980s and 29 in the 1970s.