Research shows planning for climate change will save billions

New research suggests the key to saving billions is planning ahead for climate-related natural disasters and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

COMMENT

The last few years have felt like one natural disaster after another. The unfortunate reality of climate change is that these disasters will continue to happen with more frequency than in decades past, and it’s high time to take it seriously.

Despite this depressing inevitability, as a country we always seem to be scrambling to clean up the mess, instead of preparing.

New research from Deloitte Access Economics has found that $380 billion in gross domestic product could be saved over the next 30 years, if we simply planned ahead for natural disasters like floods, fires and heatwaves.

“Targeted investments in physical (such as infrastructure) and community resilience measures (such as preparedness programs) are predicted to significantly lessen this increase in costs,” stated the report.

A cow found in flood waters on the Fraser Coast.

This “disaster resilience”, as the report calls it, also includes preventive measures like emergency management, environmental protection, land use planning, developing regulations, health and education.

So, essentially, if we start implementing measures – like creating buildings with stronger defences against likely natural disasters, and build safety measures into any future land use plans – we could save a lot of money in recovery costs.

Of course, action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is factored into that total savings – so if a dying planet can’t change government policies, perhaps saving a whole lot of money will.

The research estimated that over the past 50 years, natural disasters had cost $120 billion. As climate change gets worse, that number is predicted to hit $150 billion in just 10 years. By 2050, it’s expected to cost $39 billion per year, if nothing changes.

If the state of the country in general doesn’t worry you, then also consider that The Reserve Bank’s September analysis announced that there are already 254 “climate-sensitive suburbs” across Sydney’s north.

A home destroyed by the 2019 bush fires in Malua Bay, NSW. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Their value is expected to drop significantly if climate change keeps going on the current trajectory. The number of suburbs in the danger zone is predicted to rise to 1438 by 2100.

There has been some action taken by the federal government to deal with the growing cost of disaster relief. Last year, it announced an initiative that would create an insurance pool for damage, with $10 billion in public funds put behind it.

In a nutshell, we’ve known climate change has been a huge danger to our planet for some time, but now we can see that it’s pretty damn terrible for the economy too.