Three-quarters of Australians are concerned climate change will make insurance more expensive, according to an Australia Institute survey of more than 2000.

The Institute’s 2023 Climate of the Nation report says 29% of Australians think more expensive insurance premiums are already being caused by climate change, while 41% are “very concerned” it will push them higher and 34% “fairly concerned”.

A higher percentage were very concerned climate change would result in more expensive insurance premiums than were very concerned about destruction of the Great Barrier Reef, blackouts, melting of the polar ice caps, rising sea levels, displaced peoples and water shortages.

“Beyond the immediate effects of high energy and fuel prices...Australians recognise the less obvious but far-reaching implications the climate crisis will have for agriculture, food supplies and insurance premiums,” Climate & Energy Program Director Polly Hemming said today.

“Australians know the climate crisis will make food and insurance more expensive – they’re already feeling these impacts.”

The 2019/20 Black Summer bushfires and record 2022 floods in NSW and Queensland led to a sharp spike in the already growing cost of insurance in flood, bushfire and cyclone-prone areas, the report says. 

“An overwhelming majority of Australians are concerned that climate change will result in more expensive insurance premiums. There is good reason for this concern,” Ms Hemming said. 

Premiums have dramatically outpaced consumer price inflation and are “increasingly becoming prohibitive for those in the areas where insurance will be needed the most”. 

“Australians know these issues are connected. Climate change threatens to worsen cost-of-living pressures, and many Australians are already feeling climate change push up the price of insurance.”

The report found most of those polled supported a polluter-pays tax, a windfall profits tax on the oil and gas industry, and a levy on fossil fuel exports to fund climate adaptation.

ACT Independent Senator David Pocock says it reinforces the “very clear message Australians sent at the last election” when they elected a record number of parliamentarians pushing for much greater ambition on climate change.

“We need to accelerate action, yet the major parties continue to drag their feet. More ambition on climate action will also bring down the cost-of-living for Australians,” he said.