Lethal Heating: 03/07/18

07/03/2018

Properties Could Become Harder To Insure And Prices Could Fall As Climate Change Takes Hold, Experts Warn

Domain - Kate Burke

Houses at Collaroy Beach took the brunt of the June 2016 storm. Photo: Peter Rae

Weighing up the risks of rising sea levels will become a key factor for house hunters as it becomes harder to insure property in the face of climate change, experts say.
Homeowners are currently being left in the dark about the risks of flooding and rising water levels, Karl Mallon, science and systems director at Climate Risk, warned on ABC’s Four Corners on Monday night.
“At the moment you get more consumer protection buying a bottle of shampoo than you get buying a house,” he said. “No-one is telling homeowners what they really need to know.”

The Insurance Council of Australia believes insurance for properties vulnerable to rising sea levels and other climate change risks will become more expensive and harder to get. Photo: Sarah Keayes

Dr Mallon runs a software company that builds statistical models that assess the risk that rising sea levels pose to infrastructure. It is one of several companies now modelling these risks in the real estate market.
He thinks homeowners in areas under threat from rising sea levels could start finding it harder to sell as buyers become more aware of the effects of climate change.

At the moment you get more consumer protection buying a bottle of shampoo than you get buying a house.
Karl Mallon, Climate Risk

“If you own a home in one of those areas and you try to sell it, you may find that the buyer is saying, ‘Well, I’m not going to be able to insure it’. Or, ‘It’s going to be very expensive’. Or, ‘I don’t want to buy a house that’s going to decline in value'”, Dr Mallon said.

Kayakers float down Pittwater Road, Narrabeen, during the storm in June 2016. Photo: James Alcock

Just getting a mortgage could prove difficult if banks decided they did not want high-risk properties on their lending books, he said.
Even if only the most conservative predictions for sea level rises are correct, the Insurance Council of Australia agreed that vulnerable properties would become more expensive and harder to insure.
Some properties exposed to more frequent and severe flooding were already “far more expensive” to insure, Karl Sullivan, general manager of policy risk and disaster, told Four Corners.

Dr Karl Mallon thinks property buyers need to start factoring climate-change risk into their decision-making process. Photo: supplied

“If those scenarios are going to get worse, then you will find that insurance prices will rise to match them,” he said on the program.
A string of houses on Sydney’s northern beaches made headlines back in 2016, after being partially washed away in violent storms that battered the New South Wales coastline.
Waterfront land in Collaroy was washed away, a swimming pool was swept onto the beach and several multimillion-dollar homes where left hanging on the edge of sand cliffs.
Some residents were left battling their insurers for cover for their damaged properties. They were far from the first homeowners to be surprised by how their cover changed depending on whether the water came from the sky, the sea or a nearby lake.
When thousands of Brisbane policyholders were left uncovered after the 2011 floods, the federal government put pressure on the insurance industry to develop a standard flood clause, and broaden access to flood policies to all households or face government intervention on the issue.
While more than 90 per cent of new home insurance policies now include cover for flooding, neither ‘actions of the sea’ or the effects of gradual sea level rises are covered under the standard definition.
With tens of thousands of homes located within 110 metres of soft, erodible shorelines and flooding events in Australia expected to increase 300-fold off the back of rising sea levels, this is set to become an increasing issue.
But it’s not just property owners with beachfront properties who should be concerned. Low-lying inland areas and properties near rivers or estuaries could also be at risk. Dr Mallon noted that the low-lying streets of Woolloomooloo in Sydney also faced flooding risk.
“[What a lot of people] probably don’t realise, and no one’s telling them, is that there are coastal inundation risks,” Dr Mallon said. “These properties could be flooded. And, they’re not covered by standard insurance, so most standard insurance will exclude actions of the sea.”
Better thought needed to be put into the planning and mitigation process to ensure we never arrive at a situation where something becomes uninsurable, Mr Sullivan said.
“Insurance is very much the canary in the coal mine; you don’t want that price signal to be the first indication that you’ve got a problem,” he said.
“We know well in advance where these problems will occur and so we have got the luxury of time to start thinking about how to deal with it now.”

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Women Key To Fight Against Climate Change

Deutsche Welle

Growing up in a South African township, Ndivile Mokoena realized early that women, children and society's poorest are hit hardest by environmental issues. Now she works for gender equality and climate justice globally.

A film by Stefan Möhl

Women are more likely to die as a consequence of drought, flooding or heat waves. And — as long as political and economic power lies with men — they will continue to find it more difficult adapt to dramatic changes in their environment resulting from climate change, says climate and gender activist, Ndivile Mokoena.
Mokoena works for GenderCC, an organization that promotes gender equality in climate protection worldwide. The South African engages internationally and in her home country to get women involved in climate policy and projects.
In Johannesburg, Mokoena helps educate women in urban farming practises, which she hopes will not only help them adapt to climate change but will also increase their independence.

GenderCC Project goal
Empowering women and integrating gender as well as social aspects into urban climate policies in several pilot cities around the world.
Climate Impact
An equal society has better prospects of protecting their environment. By integrating social issues such as poverty alleviation and gender equality into urban climate policy, cities are presented with an opportunity to enhance their response to climate issues.
Project countries
South Africa, Indonesia and India.

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When Environmental Crises Hit Homes, Women Suffer The Most

Inter Press Service News Agency - Victor Tsang* | Shari Nijman*

This article is part of a series of stories and op-eds launched by Inter Press Service on the occasion of this year’s International Women’s Day on March 8.

Women from the Mishing community in Dhemaji district are shocked by the siltation caused by the floods. Credit: Priyanka Borpujari/IPS

NAIROBI, Kenya - When Mandelena became a mother, she was only 16. During the prolonged dry season in Gwor County, South Sudan, her community saw crops failing and cattle dying. Children stopped going to school because of hunger and women and girls had to walk up to five hours every day to collect water.
When resources for families further dwindled as the drought prolonged, young girls were married off for a dowry as soon as they reached puberty. Mandelena’s situation was no different. Indirectly, the course of her life had been forever changed by the environmental crisis that crippled her country.

All hands on deck
While environmental changes affect everyone, due to existing gender inequalities, women often bear the bulk of the burden. In patriarchal societies, cultural, legal and political restrictions often undermine women’s adaptability and resilience to climate change.
When cyclones and floods, droughts and extreme heat rip through the social fabric, communities need all hands on deck to deal with the repercussions. Lack of access to land and financial credit make it especially hard for women to bounce back from the onslaught.
When the effects of climate change don’t present themselves as emergencies that grab our attention on the evening news, but rather as slow-onset changes in landscapes and livelihoods, the most severe social consequences are for women and girls first.
• Being in charge of domestic fuel and water provision, women and girls have to walk farther to find these threatened resources. More and more unpaid hours are spent, which could otherwise have been spent on remunerative tasks or in school.
• Every year, indoor air pollution kills 4.3 million people, most of them women and children, because three billion people rely on inefficient cooking technology, such as wood, charcoal or animal waste.
The struggles of women and girls are only part of the picture, as gender equality concerns both men and women. In Mandelena’s community in South Sudan, cattle raiding is common and intimately linked with men’s needs to pay a good dowry for a young bride. This practice is upheld even as resources are becoming scarcer.
The result is a culture of violence, including sexual violence, to the backdrop of climate change and environmental degradation, which intensifies hunger, reduces water availability and kills cattle.

Holistic approach to a sustainable world
More than ever, the world is realizing that the sustainable development goals we set for ourselves aren’t standalone targets but rather a holistic approach to a more inclusive world. We need to recognize the key role women play in taking care of our communities, as they bear the brunt of environmental changes.
When we empower women – by supporting equal access to land, agricultural extension services, financial inclusion and education – we give them the tools to become true custodians of our biodiversity.
Some of the world’s most passionate environmentalists have shown the world that women could be powerful guardians of our planet and agents of change. We can capitalize on their knowledge and experiences.
As we increasingly become aware of the existential climate risks and repercussions of environmental degradation, governments and the private sector are pledging to take action in order to ensure a livable future for all, it is time to consider the role that women are already playing in the sustainable future of our world.
Who will lead our green revolution? Who will take the green jobs? And where will the science and innovations that facilitate our sustainable future come from?
If we want to make a real difference in our future, we have to empower every woman and man to be custodians of our earth. Because the legacy of our environment is the legacy of Mandelena’s daughters as much as her sons.

*Victor Tsang is UN Environment gender expert
*Shari Nijman, UN Environment communication officer

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