1.5 Million at Risk From Rising Seas: Climate Report Warns Economy Will Bleed Billions

Disasters may cost $40 billion a year and wipe $770 billion in property value.

In a supplied image, bushfire embers illuminate trees at the Grampians National Park, west of Melbourne, Australia, on Jan. 31, 2025. A sweltering heatwave has breathed new life into existing bushfires in Victoria's west. AAP Image/Supplied by Horsham Incident Control Centre

By 2050, 1.5 million Australians could be living with the direct impacts of rising seas, according to the nation’s first National Climate Risk Assessment.

The figure could climb to more than three million by 2090 if global warming surpasses 3 degrees Celsius.