The annual cost of natural disasters in Australia will soar to $33 billion by 2050, according to new research from the Australian Business Roundtable for Disaster Resilience & Safer Communities.

Two reports from the roundtable, which includes the CEOs of IAG and Munich Re, focus on the social impact of natural disasters and the building of resilient infrastructure.

Factoring in social impacts for the first time pushes the projected total cost of disasters up from $9 billion last year to $18 billion in 2030 and $33 billion by 2050.

The infrastructure report says due to natural disasters $17 billion will need to be spent by 2050 on direct replacement of critical assets such as roads, railways and hospitals.

IAG MD and CEO Peter Harmer says more must be done to help communities recover from events.

“It’s in the national interest for government and businesses to work together with our communities to achieve this by focusing more on prevention,” he said.

Deloitte Access Economics compiled the reports for the roundtable, which was formed in 2012.

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