IAG says New Zealanders are less personally concerned about climate change than they were a year ago but more people are concerned about the impacts

A new poll out of IAG New Zealand shows more New Zealanders appear to be less personally concerned about climate change than a year ago.

General insurer IAG, which trades under its AMI, State, NZI, NAC, Lumley and Lantern brands, released its latest climate poll on Monday.

It found 61% of respondents had become more concerned about climate change in recent years compared to 74% in the insurer’s 2023 climate poll. And 72% of people surveyed thought climate change was an important issue to them personally, down from 81% of respondents in 2023, the year when Auckland suffered Anniversary Weekend floods and much of the North Island was hit by Cyclone Gabrielle.

This year’s poll found 76% of respondents said they were equally or more concerned about how climate change will impact them, than their impact on climate change. This is compared to 37% a year ago.

IAG has been commissioning the climate poll for seven years on an annual basis and this year’s poll – which was conducted by market research firm Ipsos – surveyed 1,005 people.

This year’s poll found 31% of those surveyed said it was “okay” to charge people more for their insurance, regardless of whether they could afford it, while 41% of respondents disagreed.

Another 31% of respondents agreed insurers should stop insuring people in locations where the risk was deemed to be too great but 39% disagreed on this.

While 53% said the Government should “step in” when insurers stop insuring high-risk locations, 64% of those surveyed said the Government needed to step in when house and contents insurance becomes unaffordable.

Another 61% of respondents said the Government’s main focus should be around reducing the risks of climate hazards to bring insurance costs down.

Parliament has been warned recently that the increasing frequency of major natural hazard events is causing global reinsurers to reassess NZ’s risk profile. 

The Finance and Expenditure Committee is currently undertaking a climate inquiry after being given the responsibility of working out how NZ manages the risks and expenses associated with future extreme weather events.

The inquiry plans to provide recommendations and principles on a climate adaptation framework and report back to Climate Change Minister Simon Watts on the 5th September.

The majority of respondents in IAG’s 2024 climate poll – 90% – said they expected to see more frequent and extreme floods.

A similar number – 89% – expect coastal area flooding to go up due to sea-level rise while 87% anticipate more frequent and extreme storms.

Of those surveyed, 68% believed they will be affected by the impacts of future natural hazards.

IAG Chief Executive Amanda Whiting said recent weather events like the North Island’s Cyclone Gabrielle and Auckland Anniversary floods were still on people’s minds.

“The number of claims and amount of money paid out only partially reflects the true social and economic cost of natural hazard events,” she said.

“We need to do a better job at reducing natural hazard risk, particularly for our most hazard-prone communities.”

She said it was “impossible” to remove all risk as NZ was going to continue to experience floods, storms, earthquakes and other disasters. However, the country needed a “strong insurance industry” to support faster recovery from these sorts of events.

First layer

The Natural Hazards Commission (NHC) said on Monday new research from NielsenIQ showed that only a third of New Zealanders properly understand their insurance.

The Commission has launched a campaign to bring more awareness around natural hazard insurance. 

The NielsenIQ report revealed that only 33% of insured homeowners are confident in the case of a natural hazard event of knowing what damage to their home would or wouldn't be covered by insurance.

And only 26% of people were confident that they understood what they’d be covered for when it came to damage to their land. 

Chief Executive Tina Mitchell said NZ was a country particularly prone to natural hazards and people understanding their insurance cover was “critical”.

The NHC provides a “first layer” of insurance for natural hazards damage to insured residential homes and some land of generally up to $300,000.

Everyone with a home insurance policy pays a levy into a fund that provides a contribution towards repairs if your insured property is damaged by a natural hazard.
 

A natural hazards insurance premium, or levy, is collected by private insurers and then paid into the Natural Disaster Fund (NDF) and the Crown Guarantee – both of which are managed by the NHC.

The natural hazards insurance levy is 16 cents per $100 and up to the maximum amount of cover from the scheme ($300,000), which means the levy is capped at $480.