Climate change is making natural disasters more frequent and more intense, increasing costs for households, businesses and governments. This includes local governments, which are responsible for infrastructure such as roads, footpaths, drainage, sewage, parks and community facilities.

This paper makes the point that the costs of climate change in Australia are increasing rapidly, while local government revenues are growing far more slowly. This is demonstrated by a comparison of the value of insured losses from natural catastrophes with data on local government revenues.

Local governments will incur substantial costs from natural disasters and will need to make significant climate adaptation investments to help keep their constituents safe. They will be required to respond to the impacts of climate disasters and will need to invest in climate adaptation infrastructure to reduce the damage done by these disasters. 

The paper argues that instead of taxing the Australian general public, the fossil fuel industry, which profits from exacerbating climate change, should be required to pay these costs.