Climate change is being blamed for potential insurance premium rises as hailstorms and bushfires cause increased damage.
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general insurance company, -Search using:Insurance Australia Group, 
urged immediate action to deal with rising global temperatures.The chief risk officer and group actuary for IAG, Tony Coleman, told a climate change conference in Canberra that "human-induced climate change is now a reality and it must be addressed with appropriate urgency".
As global temperatures rose, climate-related events such as cyclones, floods, bushfires and storms would increase. A small increase in temperature could have a dramatic effect on the level of damage, he warned.
The company has begun lobbying governments on the issue of climate change.
Public awareness campaigns were needed to identify areas vulnerable to events such as floods, as were changes to building codes. Mr Coleman also said the impact of climate change should be considered when processing development applications.
"The biggest question we then need to address is how much the changing climate will affect us and our biggest challenge lies in minimising the additional risk associated with human-induced climate change," he said.
Over the past 15 years, IAG had paid $1.3 billion in weather-related home and motor vehicle insurance claims in NSW.
Claims made because of storms made up a large part of that figure, he said, and the April 1999 hailstorm was responsible for a quarter of claims in that time. "Therefore, changes to the nature of these extreme events could appreciably alter the risk to people and property and ultimately impact on the price and availability ofinsurance."
Mr Coleman said the insurance sector was moving towards identifying homes in at-risk areas. Insurance companies would consider putting conditions oninsurance, such as standards for roof strength in places where hailstorms were considered a possibility.
Data from IAG claims showed that once wind gusts reached a certain level, serious damage was more likely to be caused by things such as falling trees and roof sections being blown off. Double the wind speed could could cause four times more damage. An average increase in temperature of one degree could result in a 17 to 28 per cent increase in bushfires.
Similarly, hail below a certain size would not cause significant damage to things like car panels, but, once the size passed a certain point, damage could increase substantially.
Across the world, 85 per cent of natural catastrophes between 1960 and 1999 were weather-related. In Australia, 87 per cent of economic losses from natural disasters were caused by weather-related events.
The average annual cost of natural disasters to NSW was nearly $485 million, and more than $1 billion Australia-wide.
"From a meteorological point of view, a storm which is classed as an extreme event may not be much more severe than a level of storm intensity that occurs regularly each year," Mr Coleman warned.
"However, they can achieve huge increases in damages through the breaking of critical thresholds.
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