Insurance Council Welcomes Government Funding Research

MEDIA RELEASE

October 4, 2013

Insurance Council Welcomes Government Funding Research On Resilience to Natural Hazards

The Insurance Council of New Zealand has welcomed Government’s announcement that up to $201 million will be spent on scientific research aimed at strengthening New Zealand’s resilience to natural hazards.

Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce today announced that up to $201.4 million will be spent over the next 10 years researching “Resilience to Nature’s Challenges - strengthening New Zealand’s resilience to natural hazards” as part of the National Science Challenges programme.

“The Insurance Council welcomes Government funding of this research,” says ICNZ Chief Executive Tim Grafton. “Improving community resilience to extreme weather events is a priority, especially given escalated warnings about the impact of climate change.”

“Every dollar spent in pre-disaster adaptation measures saves many more after the event.  Without adaptation there will be increased insurance claims and higher losses leading to higher premiums or even cover being withdrawn in some areas.

“The result for communities will be more expensive disaster bills, slower recovery and significant economic loss.  To avoid this, research is needed to inform the frequency and magnitude of weather events and high-grade modelling which builds in cascading events - floods bring with them landslides, storms bring winds and with high tides come storm surges,” says Mr Grafton.  “Government funding of this research is a welcome initiative as we need to think about how to manage risk, not assume that insurance manages it all for us.”

ENDS

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