Australia extreme weather costs: Insurance industry warns losses second only to US

Australia is second only to the United States for the cost of extreme weather over the past 45 years, and every decade since 1980 has been costlier than the last, the insurance industry says.

The 2024-25 Insurance Catastrophe Resilience Report says losses from floods, bushfires and storms have climbed consistently every decade, after adjusting for inflation. The recent National Climate Risk Assessment predicted this to grow as global warming progresses this century.

Insurance Council chief executive Andrew Hall said the perception of Australia mattered because the local insurance industry was heavily reliant on international capital markets, and that affected the price of premiums.

“We’ve got a number of populations living in high-risk zones, geographically exposed to extreme weathe