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Rising seas will cost Australians $855 billion. Meet the people already paying.

Climate Media Centre

A new Climate Council report finds sea level rise will cost Australians $855 billion this century, roughly a third of the nation's entire annual economic output. The report uses data from co-author University of Melbourne Professor Tom Kompas, and reveals coastal flooding is expected to damage 267,000 properties and two million hectares of land across every state and the Northern Territory.

 

Behind the numbers are people already paying for damages: a grazier who lost most of his herd in flooding, a teacher watching her beach disappear metre by metre, a coastal community throwing out its Christmas food after days without power. Climate pollution, from coal and gas corporations, is heating our oceans and driving up sea levels, causing flooding of our beaches, our estuaries and our farmland. 

 

The Climate Media Centre has spokespeople available across the country who can speak to rising seas, and costs, where they live, and what should be done about it.

 

To arrange interviews, please contact:

Sean Kennedy, Senior Media Advisor, Climate Media Centre, 0447 121 378, [email protected] 

(Radio producers: Audio news grabs from Clarence Valley farmer, Peter Lake, available here and audio grabs from Climate Councillor, climate scientist and report co-author Adjunct Professor Andrew Watkins available here.) 

 

Karen Palmer, Research Fellow, Australian Antarctic Program Partnership (AAPP), University of Tasmania

Dr Palmer studies how fast high tides are creeping up our shorelines, estuaries, and coastal lakes. She can explain the physical story behind the report: why every centimetre of sea level rise matters, what’s already locked in, and what Antarctica is warning us about the decades ahead.

 

Simon Rowe, Operations Manager, OceanWatch Australia

Simon is an applied scientist who has spent more than 22 years working in Marine Natural Resource Management alongside seafood harvesters across Australia, on everything from water quality and coastal habitat repair to now helping the oyster industry in NSW adapt to changing estuaries.

 

Elia Hauge, Councillor, Byron Shire, water and climate-adaptation engineer 

An engineer who works on water security for coastal communities, and a Northern Rivers local, Cr Hauge sits where the technical and the personal meet. She can speak to what rising seas mean for the most exposed region in NSW, and what councils are already spending to hold the line.

 

Ben Mos, Senior Lecturer in Aquaculture Biology, University of Queensland

Dr Mos restores oyster reefs in Quandamooka (Moreton Bay) and works closely with local oyster farmers who rely on these waters. The enduring importance of oysters in the bay can still be seen along the coastline through middens and other important cultural sites. Many of these sites are thousands of years older than the Great Pyramids, yet some are already being damaged by coastal erosion. As sea levels continue to rise, more of this priceless cultural heritage is at risk of being washed away.

 

Robert Quirk, Cane farmer, Tweed Valley, NSW

Robert farms sugar cane half a metre above sea level, where every centimetre of sea level rise means 10 Olympic pools of water to pump off his land. A long-time Farmers for Climate Action member, he's been living the maths of rising seas for decades and can make it real for anyone.

 

Peter Lake, Grazier, Clarence Valley, NSW

Peter runs cattle in the Clarence Valley and has built his operation around flood preparedness, moving stock to flood-free paddocks and feeding them until the water recedes. That safe ground is shrinking, as rising seas and worsening floods eat into what used to be reliable high land. He no longer tries to grow crops on the property, and climate change has forced him to rethink the entire operation.

 

Kym Oconnell, Real estate agent, Currumbin Valley, QLD

Kym works as a real estate agent at Currumbin Valley, home to the Ecovillage, a community built on rehabilitated farmland with its own water and energy systems that has become a benchmark for sustainable development on the Gold Coast. After the 2022 floods, her own home insurance premium rose to $20,000 a year. She called around 15 insurers before finding the best available cover, close to $8,000, still without flood included. She can speak to both sides of the story: the cost of an increasingly unaffordable insurance market, and what a more resilient way of building looks like right on her own doorstep.

 

Dave Sothern, Level Electrical & Solar, QLD (overseas, WhatsApp/online interviews only)

Dave runs an electrical business that specialises in backup solutions on the Gold Coast and has seen a rise in enquiries for dewatering pumps in basement car parks since Cyclone Alfred. He can speak to what building owners are now spending to keep floodwater out of their properties, and what that tells us about how the Coast is adapting.

 

Aileen Vening, Wonthaggi resident (near Inverloch), retired geography teacher, VIC

Aileen has documented the disappearing beach at Inverloch over many years, through her long involvement in education programs at the Bunurong Environment Centre. The Inverloch Surf Life Saving Club is now sitting behind sandbags, while the main surf beach is being replenished with sand pumping equipment to hold the line against the next storm surge.

 

Michelle Archard, Electrify Gold Coast, Currumbin Valley, QLD

A Gold Coast local and community advocate, Michelle can speak to the resilience side of the story that the report's dollar figures don't capture. She points to two multi-day blackouts in recent years, families throwing out hundreds of dollars of food at Christmas 2023 and again during Cyclone Alfred, and high-rise residents trapped when lifts, stairwell lights and basement car park gates all died with the power. As the climate throws more at the Coast, solar and batteries are becoming essential infrastructure that keeps a community functioning.

 

–END–

 

BACKGROUND

  • The Rising Seas Rising Costs report finds climate pollution from coal, oil and gas will raise sea levels by around 55 centimetres by 2100.

  • Every state and the Northern Territory will bear significant economic costs, from Western Australia ($230.5 billion) to Tasmania ($7.9 billion).

  • Queensland has the greatest number of homes at risk (93,157 properties), followed by New South Wales (71,210) and Western Australia (51,366).

  • Queensland's Gold Coast alone faces $84.4 billion in projected economic losses, the single most exposed urban area in Australia.

  • Northern NSW faces $55.2 billion in losses and 17,995 properties at risk, including parts of Maclean, Yamba, Iluka, Ballina, Byron Bay's Belongil Spit, Brunswick Heads, Kingscliff and Tweed Heads.

  • Victoria faces $167 billion in projected losses. Inverloch has lost more than 70 metres of foreshore since 2012.

  • When coastal flooding hits, most homeowners will wear the costs, as private insurers do not cover 'actions of the sea'.

  • The report is based on research by Professor Tom Kompas, University of Melbourne, published in Scientific Reports. For the full report, state-by-state data and Climate Council spokespeople, contact the Climate Council media team on [email protected] or 0485 863 063.


Contact details:

Sean Kennedy, Senior Media Advisor, Climate Media Centre, 0447 121 378, [email protected]