Page 34 - Climate Control News March 2020

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LAST YEAR WAS ONE OF AUSTRALIA’S BIGGEST FOR INSURED LOSSES WITH PAYOUTS ALREADY TOPPING $1.2 BILLION.
AON HEAD OF APAC ANALYTICS, PETER CHEESMAN, EXPLAINS WHY LOCAL POLICY-MAKERS MUST RECOGNISE THAT CLIMATE CHANGE IS NOT AN ‘EVENT’ BUT A LONG TERM TREND.
Build a more resilient future from the ashes of climate disaster
The total extent of the damage from the 2019- 20 fire season remains to be fully understood al- though the NSW Rural Fire Service estimates that there have been at least 3000 homes lost, with nearly 2400 of those located in NSW (as at 27 January 2020).
What will compound the economic cost of the destroyed structures and homes in these fires is the issue of underinsurance, particularly when rebuilding older-style properties to comply with the more robust standards of the National Con- struction Code.
“WE NEED TO BALANCE AN UNDERSTANDING OF SCIENCE WITH SMART BUSINESS SOLUTIONS.”
The catastrophic impact of 2019’s weather events on our community and people may be as detrimental as, if not more detrimental than, the economic loss, which is likely to be extreme and perhaps unprecedented.
While it should be noted that climate change is a long-term trend and not an ‘event’, resulting in gradual movements in current averages over time rather than sudden dramatic shifts, this will continue to affect all types of weather phenome- na and subsequently may result in greater risk of damage across increasingly urbanised areas.
As governments, industry bodies and the pri- vate sector balance an understanding of the sci- ence with smart business solutions, this may lead to new advances that lower physical risk and improve overall awareness.
Projected changes in many weather extremes highlight the need to focus on building a more resilient future built environment to better cope with extreme events.
The long-term impacts of weather events in 2019 must be considered in policy-shaping in 2020 and beyond, with a focus to improving Australia’s urban environment resilience while encouraging greater preparedness for those living in risk-prone areas at the centre of those discussions.
Government policies relating to development, building codes, practices, materials and installa- tion methods may need to be revisited to mini- mise the almost certain future increases in prop- erty damage. ✺
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Peter Cheesman is head of APAC Analytics at Aon. Data in this article was sourced from Aon’s annual Weather, Climate & Catastrophe Report.
AUSTRALIA RECORDED ONE of its most no- table years for weather disasters in 2019, and it is already the fifth largest insured loss year over the last 20 years In the past 15 years, Australia has ex- perienced eight of its 10 warmest years on record.
There was perhaps no other region of the world which encountered more calamitous fire and dangerous heatwave conditions than Australia.
The year initially saw record flooding that in- undated Townsville in North Queensland in Feb- ruary. More than 30,000 insurance claims were filed, with payouts topping $1.269 billion.
One of the most significant weather-related events, however, was the ongoing intense multi- year drought and record-setting spring and summer heat which led to conditions which are likely to have contributed to the destructive bushfires in New South Wales, Queensland, Vic- toria, and South Australia.
An important climatological phenomenon called the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) was a key driver of significant weather-related impacts across the country.
According to the Australian Bureau of Mete- orology the 2019 positive IOD – where cooler than average temperatures in the eastern half of the Indian Ocean influenced exceptionally dry conditions in Australia – was the strongest such event since 1997.
The 2019 spring and early winter months marked Australia’s driest in 120 years. In east- ern Australia, the bushfire season began much earlier than usual and became one of the most significant in terms of spatial area burned due to the drought severity and widespread availa- bility of dry, burnable fuels. On 18 December we recorded our hottest national average tempera- ture on record: 41.9°C.
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