Climate 'may impact coastal real estate'

Australia's coastal residents could be about to encounter the impact of climate change on their property insurance, a Sydney climate forum has been told.

Climate change business risk analyst Karl Mallon told the conference that the cash value of a home would be cut by up to 80 per cent if it is deemed uninsurable for a severe weather event caused by global warming.

Dr Mallon, from the Climate Risk group, which advises government and businesses, was addressing a meeting attended by several of Australia's contributors to a newly released UN report on climate change.

He said developers and local councils risk litigation for negligence if they fail to factor climate change into planning.

"The science has hardened up enough and the awareness has hardened up enough, that probably we will see this year as a turning point in the debate over climate change and the need for it to be acknowledged in economic decision-making," Dr Mallon said.

He said the financial impact of climate change on coastal communities is not likely to be gradual or to stretch over decades.

"It may occur at the point where an underwriter decides they are going to change a premium associated with a community and that can happen quite quickly - literally at the stroke of a pen," Dr Mallon said.

Rising sea levels, erosion, tidal surges, flooding and cyclones - made worse by global warming - would all threaten insurance premiums before they actually impacted on a community.

One of the Australian authors of the UN report, Professor Nick Harvey, said there is an urgent need to assess coastal vulnerability.

Prof Harvey, from the University of Adelaide, told the forum that people wanting to live by the sea could have to pay a levy to fund costly coastal protection measures.

"There is certainly a concern now about who is going to pay for property risk and liability among insurance companies and planning authorities if properties flood or subside," Prof Harvey said.

"Somewhere down the line someone may turn around and say (to the councils) 'Well, you didn't take on the advice, you were dismissive of the advice you were given on climate change' and they might be liable."