The latest Australian Actuaries Climate Index reflects record winter rainfall in parts of the country and backs a growing focus on mitigation efforts to reduce the fallout from extreme weather.

Actuaries Institute CEO Elayne Grace says the latest quarter’s index readings show extreme climate variations are continuing, increasing the urgency to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The region covering Sydney and most of the NSW coast set a record for extreme rainfall in winter, while the northern-most Queensland region notched up the second highest value for extreme rainfall since the index began in November 2018.

“The frequency of extreme weather events and natural disasters across the country in recent years highlights the need for collaborative and urgent action to improve resilience,” Ms Grace said.

The update comes as the estimate of insured losses from flooding in NSW and Queensland in February and March has risen to $5.56 billion, equalling Sydney’s 1999 hailstorm.

The two catastrophes share first place for the costliest extreme weather event in Australia’s history, the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) says. The only other Australian catastrophe to surpass $5 billion in insured losses was 1974’s Cyclone Tracy.

ICA data shows since drought broke in February 2020, flood-related events have generated close to 600,000 insurance claims valued at $8.8 billion. The February/March event generated 236,000 claims, split between NSW and Queensland.

The current insurance flood catastrophe in Victoria, NSW and Tasmania has so far generated 14,481 claims since October 12.

“For insurers to continue to provide cover at an affordable price and for property and lives to be protected, not only is action required to strengthen the resilience of existing homes and communities, but we must shift our approach to what we build and where we build it,” ICA said.

Ms Grace said last week’s federal Budget sets Australia on a solid path to help “reduce the worst risks of a changing climate” and told insuranceNEWS.com.au today there had been a step change in attitudes and responsiveness.

“There's much more of an understanding and less of a blame game, which is more of an acknowledgement of the risk being increased,” she said.

“It impacts right throughout Australia. We'll see that now – impacting food prices and other things. It's a whole of Australia problem and I think that's why we're finally seeing all of the governments working together to try and deal with this.”

Severe flooding in low-lying areas such as NSW’s Lismore had “really focused the minds of everybody that this needs to be dealt with, we cannot deal with this just on a post disaster basis”.

"It was good to see more of a focus on resilience, working out stuff before,” Ms Grace said. “Ultimately, for people's mental health, it's not good to be dealing with so many catastrophes in a year. It's not sustainable.”