Climate Sense

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overnance

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anagement

The populated deltas, small island states, Africa generally, and the

Arctic region have been identified as the most vulnerable regions.

New insights into climate change impacts and their management are

expected from the planned IPCC Special Report onManaging the Risks of

Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation.

Proposed by UNISDR and the Norwegian government in 2008, the report

will provide an authoritative assessment of disaster risk reduction and

management policies and practices, including their effectiveness and

costs, and thereby a sounder basis for action on adaptation and disas-

ter risk reduction. Its preparation by the IPCC will involve hundreds of

experts worldwide and will be completed by mid-2011.

Disaster risk and the UNFCCC process

The Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate

Change (UNFCCC) now recognize that existing knowledge and capaci-

ties for coping with extreme weather events must be harnessed to adapt

to climate change. The Bali Action Plan’s directions for adaptation call

for the consideration of:

• Risk management and risk reduction strategies, including risk sharing

and transfer mechanisms such as insurance

• Disaster reduction strategies and means to address loss and damage

associated with climate change impacts in developing countries that

are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.

The Bali Action Plan also calls for vulnerability assess-

ments, capacity building and response strategies, as well

as integration of actions into sectoral and national plan-

ning. These points, together with specific reference to

the Hyogo Framework, are now part of the draft text

that negotiators are considering in preparation of a new

international agreement, to be settled in Copenhagen in

December 2009.

For its part, the UNISDR secretariat supports the

UNFCCC processes by convening processes to provide

ISDR-wide coordinated submissions to UNFCCC

Parties on disaster risk issues and practical adaptation

methods and by assisting disaster risk reduction experts

to accompany their national delegations to UNFCCC

meetings. It also organizes partner side events at these

sessions and encourages links between adaptation and

disaster risk reduction groups in countries.

Building data foundations for adaptation and disaster

risk reduction

At the local scales where local governments, enterprises

and communities mostly operate, climate projections

are very uncertain. Effective adaptive action therefore

remains highly dependent on the available foundations

of historical climate data and analysis. Risk assess-

ments, early warning systems, sector risk management,

insurance tools, and public education, for example, all

rely on such factual information. The patterns of past

climatic variability, over time and across local geograph-

ical features, are essential to interpret the global model

projections and to generate future climate scenarios for

testing different decision options.

Most developed countries are well equipped for the

task: having national monitoring networks, databases

of historical data and good analysis capabilities. In some

cases, however, the effective use of these national resources

is unduly restricted by shortsighted user-pays policies.

The situation for developing countries is generally

much less satisfactory. Many have inadequate networks,

fragmented historical data resources, and minimal capac-

ities to maintain networks and databases or to carry out

analysis and advisory services. Given that developing

countries are predominantly those most affected by

disasters and will be most affected by climate change, it

is imperative that substantial new resources are put in

place to aid the development of their climate informa-

tion capacities.

The issue of vulnerability to natural hazards and disas-

ter risks will remain central to the discussions leading to

the UNFCCC Conference of Parties in Copenhagen in

December 2009. While climate change undoubtedly will

increase the hazard threat, it will also raise awareness of

disasters and galvanize commitment to action against their

root causes. Immediate action conducted under the guid-

ance of the Hyogo Framework will make societies safer.

With the support of science, it is possible to simultane-

ously provide adaptive capacity, increase resilience to future

threats, and reduce the current unacceptable and growing

levels of disaster risk.

Political commitment to cutting disaster risks is growing – the 2009 Global Platform for

Disaster Risk Reduction attracted heads of state and governments to tackle the problem

Image: Reid Basher

The monitoring networks and analysis centres of the Japan Meteorological Agency keep

track of multiple hazards and provide timely warnings to those at risk

Image: Reid Basher