Warnings insurance will back out as climate change shows its teeth
As the capital reels from a number of severe weather events, experts are warning tens of thousands of Wellington homes will soon be uninsurable. Insurance retreat is such a touchy subject that Insurance Council chief executive Tim Grafton will neither talk about it nor issue a statement about it. But those at the pointy end of climate change say insurance retreat when insurers refuse to take on the risk of covering homes in risky areas is coming and may be here already. And these are not just coastal properties but many places on flood plains or slip prone areas. Wellington recorded a record amount of slips in 2022 with 1143 slips last winter alone more than triple the 373 in 2021 and many more than the 170 a year earlier. READ MORE: * 'All was calm, then came the clear-fell harvest': Experts weigh in on the scourge of forestry slash * Why 'insurance retreat' will drive our housing market away from flood risk * Wellington's wet December fits with heavier rainfall climate change predictions Meanwhile, Insurance Council figures show a record $351.22 million was paid out on extreme weather general insurance claims in 2022, only to be smashed already in 2023, not even halfway through the year. Auckland Anniversary weekend flooding and Cyclone Gabrielle claims stood at $2.47 billion by early April, for 96,586 claims. At some point, insurance companies are going to say, it is too risky to insure here, said Victoria University Climate scientist James Renwick. He had been told though not had it confirmed that there were already areas insurance companies were baulking at. Belinda Storey, chairperson in the economics of disasters and climate change at Victoria University of Wellington, believed tens of thousands of Wellington homes would be uninsurable in a decade or two 50 years at best. It would soon become a reality that most coastal homes could not be insured and the number inland in flood plains mostly but also slip-prone areas would be ten times that figure, she said. Meanwhile, new science has painted a troubling picture of how close the more-drastic effects of climate change are to our door steps. An international study has shown that Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are losing more than three times as much ice a year as they were 30 years ago. Closer to home, in Antarctica, recent research has shown that ice shelves holding back the massive Thwaites Doomsday and Pine Island glaciers are melting fast, which will lead to sea levels rising by about 1 metre. The timeframe is uncertain but it could be decades rather than centuries, experts warn. The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research recently confirmed 2022 w as New Zealands hottest year on record since meteorologists started to measure temperatures in 1909. The record has fallen twice in two years, with 2021 awarded the title 12 months earlier.