biancanogrady, 9 months ago

We live in a highly bushfire-prone area in Australia. These are our annual house insurance premiums in the past six years:
2018 - $2645
2019 - $2745
2020 - $3124
2021 - $3396
2022 - $4069
2023 - $5582
If #insurance becomes unaffordable unless you live in a low-risk area, a significant percentage of Australians will be unable to insure their homes because of #bushfire, #flood, #cyclone risk.
So what does that mean in a future where these #climate events are more likely and more severe?
If the insurance industry decides a significant percentage of Australians are uninsurable, and that same percentage are highly like to experience extreme weather events, whose responsibility is to to support those individuals when the inevitable happens?
Sure, we could argue that people shouldn't live in fire/flood prone areas, but when those areas include entire towns eg Lismore, or suburbs of major cities eg Canberra, that argument doesn't work. We can't all live in CBD high-rises. So where are we going to live in a #climatechange future?
I don't have answers here. I'm assuming that our home will burn in my lifetime. I'm privileged that - for the moment - we can afford these premiums. But this price rises are going to create an uninsured underclass, who will be already disadvantaged economically, and who will bear the brunt of climate-change impacts.