Climate councillor and economist Nicki Hutley said we could not afford to not act on climate change.
“The estimate is 10 times – the cost of inaction is 10 times the cost of what we need to do, certainly in Australia, to be able to get to net zero,” she told 9news.com.au.
Hutley highlighted the future costs of natural disasters such as cyclones, fires, floods and longer-term changes such as rising sea levels and extreme heat.
“These things are affecting our lives and livelihoods in multiple dimensions, and the cost of that absolutely dwarfs anything that we need to do to make the transition,” she said.
“Now it is, from an economic cost-benefit analysis, it is an absolute no brainer.”
Some of that impact is already being felt in homes across the country and on the budget bottom line.
On a more personal level, more than 60,000 people have made insurance claims in the wake of what the Insurance Council of Australia has classified as a “catastrophe”.
The Climate Council said the cost of extreme weather disasters had more than doubled since the 1970s and their increased frequency was pushing up premiums.
“Australians are paying an inflation-adjusted $30 billion more today on insurance than they were only 10 years ago,” the experts said.
In 2022, the McKell Institute calculated how much extreme weather was costing Australians per year. That figure was $888 on average in the 10 previous years, $1500 due to record-breaking floods in 2021-2022 and expected to surge to $2500 by 2050.
Thousands of NSW fish deaths expected due to cyclone ‘blackwater’
‘Stark warning’ for what’s to come
Warmer and higher seas – both driven by human-caused climate change – were among a range of factors that made Alfred more damaging, the Climate Council said.
The report cited research indicating heating oceans were expected to mean fewer but more extreme cyclones for Australia and called on leaders to act on climate change.
Alfred’s slow and winding path also meant longer-lasting impacts, driving up damage and cost.
“This report is a stark warning that the southward drift of Cyclone Alfred may be a preview of what’s to come if we keep prolonging the use of coal, oil and gas,” the authors wrote.
“It is critical that we understand such disasters are no longer simply ‘natural’.
“Unless we cut climate pollution further and faster, we will be exposed to even more damaging disasters.”
Records before and after cyclone
The report highlighted a number of climate records in both the lead up to the cyclone forming and its later, “chaotic” path off the coast and across south-east Queensland.
Record temperatures were recorded in the Coral Sea, where Alfred formed late last month, in January, followed by the fourth-hottest on record in February.
The cyclone then generated its own records, for the largest wave ever recorded off the Gold Coast and most Queensland SES callouts in 24 hours, along with daily rainfall numbers not seen in decades.
Nambour copped 365 millimetres with 433 millimetres in Diamond Valley, nearby on the Sunshine Coast hinterland and Brisbane had 275 millimetres, its heaviest rain in 51 years.
Upper Springbrook in the Gold Coast copped significantly more than a metre of rain across the week of the storm.
“Our weather is now more chaotic, unpredictable and dangerous due to climate pollution, which presents challenges for us all,” the Climate Council said.
“The latest research shows for every degree of global warming, Australians will experience 7-28 per cent more rain for hourly events, and 2-15 per cent more for longer duration events; a range significantly higher than the 5 per cent typically accounted for in Australia’s flood planning standards.
“While Australia is now cutting climate pollution, it is not fast or far enough to do our fair share in limiting global heating well under 2 degrees. We must slash climate pollution fast to reduce costly storm damages, as well as prepare communities and our infrastructure for the disasters we cannot avoid.”
The new report highlighted the mental health impact of the system, particularly for those in more two dozen local government areas across south-east Queensland who were also hit by flooding in 2022.
“Many of the places hit by Alfred are the same places still rebuilding and recovering from recent major flooding events,” they said.
“These communities are being pushed to their limit by repeated damaging extreme rainfall events.”
The researchers noted the disaster came as government-funded climate science came under threat from President Donald Trump in the US, after the previous Australian government “dismantled decades of institutional climate science capability”.
“We cannot afford to fly blind in a volatile climate. Lives and our economy depend on timely and robust climate information,” they said
Every decision taken by political leaders would play a “pivotal role in our race to secure a safer future for our kids” in a “critical decade for action on climate”.
“Unless we act quickly to cut climate pollution, the destructive, south tracking Tropical Cyclone Alfred may be remembered as offering a glimpse into a more dangerous and destructive future for vulnerable Australian communities,” the authors said.