One of the more interesting of the dimensions of the climate change debate is the very large and clear divergence in reactions between business interests that are impacted negatively by carbon mitigation and those that are impacted negatively by doing nothing. Perhaps unsurprisingly, sectors in the former group tend to be skeptical, but those in the latter group are busy preparing.
If you live coastal, you might find yourself in the latter category sooner than you think. From Banking Day:
Insurers and banks are beginning to focus on the risks of rising sea levels for property values, New Zealand’s Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment has warned ahead of the release of a detailed new report which will show which coastal property will be hit hardest.
Commissioner Jan Wright appeared before parliament’s Local Government and Environment select committee in Wellington on Thursday to discuss the Commission’s recent report ‘Changing climate and rising seas: Understanding the science’, which spelt out that a 30 cm rise in sea levels by 2050 was already ‘baked in’.
When she released that report late last year, Wright was already warning that banks had started taking an interest in the issue during the investigation.
“If you imagine now a thirty year mortgage on coastal property that is vulnerable, maybe you get to a point where the insurance is not renewable after a certain point,” she said at the time.
“When these events become a certain frequency, the insurance companies say: ‘No more’. And for the banks there may be the problem of negative equity.”
You can always stay where you are and read Terry McCrann.
