Residential buildings in Australia worth up to $63 billion could be inundated if sea levels rise 1.1 metres this century as a result of climate change, according to a new Federal Government report.

The report, Climate Change Risks to Australia’s Coast: A First Pass National Assessment, says that with a 0.5 metre mid-range sea level rise, current 1-in-100 year weather events could occur several times a year in 2100.

“For illustration, a current 1-in-100 year event is equivalent to the intensity of storms along the NSW Central Coast in June 2007, when more than 200,000 homes lost power, thousands of people were forced to evacuate their properties and insured losses exceeded $1.3 billion,” it says.

An even larger increase in the frequency of high sea level events would occur around Sydney, with smaller increases around Adelaide and along parts of the WA coast.