Adelaide has warned councils must budget for climate change and associated insurance risks.

Adelaide City Council audit committee head David Powell says the council needs to consider the impacts of climate change as an “emerging financial risk” in coming years.

A Climate Council study this year estimated nation-wide residential property value losses of $571 billion by 2030 from increased extreme weather events.

As buildings become more exposed, insurance premiums will skyrocket, potentially leaving the property market exposed.

“There is discussion about how climate risk is having a really big impact on properties in Queensland to the point where you can’t even get insurance on those properties, so we’re really quite aware that that’s going to have an impact here too,” he said.

“There will be initiatives, there will be things that we need to budget for in our long-term financial plan on rectification projects…. alternate road surfaces, additional greening, all those kinds of things.

“There’s are also some obligations that are coming… climate-related risks and other emerging risk disclosures that will be required.

“There are companies that have actually been fined for not disclosing this kind of information, so ultimately it will get to that stage when it will become a requirement at a local government level too.”