Flooding in Matatā in February 2006. Photo / Andrew Warner
Rising sea levels and more extreme weather will change the way property is insured, but one expert warns higher premiums are just the start.
Climate change is set to intensify and increase the major weather events people insure properties and assets against - protection some homeowners may struggle to obtain in future as insurers potentially withdraw from high-risk areas.
Read more: How climate change could send insurance costs surging
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OPINION
A previous writer makes a valid point that it is a dumb idea to allow houses to be built in flood-prone areas. Readers who follow the Australian news will know that some towns and housing areas in Australia have been repeatedly flooded - it has almost become an expected cycle of events.
It's common to read headlines and articles on the devastation caused by climate change but too often articles proceed to advocate yet more action to reduce emissions - as if that was going to help.
I suggest that a better way to go is to acknowledge first of all that the climate is always changing and that it is powered by powerful forces which humans cannot control.
We should spend our money first of all on sensible planning decisions and secondly adapting to climate change as and when it occurs.
Apply common sense. In Australia, a lack of common sense over energy supply has led to Australians now facing massive increases in power bills. You reap what the politicians sow.
Denis M
Yet again, it looks like business and the public, will lead the way in our climate change responses. Where local government (and national government) could be taking more stringent action, such as making proper surveys of their areas and refusing building permits on land susceptible to flooding, it is left to private business to simply refuse to insure buildings on flood-prone land.
Similarly, on a worldwide scenario, it is largely left to public companies to simply move away from hydrocarbon power etc, and for the public to stop their involvement (buying shares) in these companies.
For any person to persist in living in a flood-prone zone is hard to understand. The financial cost of getting reasonable value for your property is something that we need to discuss openly in our politics.
Alexander M
In reply to Alexander M: Yet when local and regional government attempt to change land-use regulations to prevent building in coastal hazard zones, the howls of protest echo from one end of the motu to the other.
It's the NIMBY syndrome in full flight. I have seen it here in Christchurch over the past 30 years with people trying to prevent the Christchurch City Council from entering natural hazard information on their property LIMS, even after the earthquakes.
We have a whole community built on a sandspit that moves. We know that the spit tip has moved more than 100m laterally during a 125-year period. That's just the range of movement, not the total movement because the spit tends to move back and forth. We have areas in the city that repeatedly flood during heavy rain events, especially during low tide. The area of inundation increased after the quakes, especially because the river beds were uplifted during the quakes.
Paul H
Owners or buyers risk - most information is on file, factor in storm surges from cyclones. A story from my grandmother: In 1936 at Pukehina in the Bay of Plenty, a storm surge was going over the sand dunes and into the estuary - it is now fully developed with housing.
David M
How many beach fronts do you think are going to get covered in sea water? Very few.
Ian U
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