More than 267,000 Australian properties and two million hectares of land could be damaged or lost to rising sea levels and coastal flooding, in a trend that could cost the nation $855 billion.
Western Australia faces the greatest economic losses by 2100 at $230.5 billion, while Queensland has the most properties at risk, with more than 93,000 on the line, followed by NSW with more than 71,000.
The Climate Council issued the warning on Thursday in a report estimating the financial cost of rising sea levels and storm surges, drawing on research from the University of Melbourne.
It comes one week after the United Nations warned the world would exceed 1.5 degrees of warming within years, increasing the risk of sea-level rises and more frequent extreme weather events such as heatwaves, cyclones, floods and fires.
The council’s report, Rising Seas, Rising Bills, estimated the risk of sea-level rises in Australia in an intermediate scenario where global emissions peaked in 2040 and declined rapidly.
