UNCTAD
The economic losses caused by disasters could be reduced if the public and private sectors cooperate better on novel finance, insurance and investment strategies, a multi-agency meeting bringing together trade and disaster risk reduction experts from the UN system and beyond heard on 15 October.
Economically devastating catastrophes are on the rise. While disaster losses are also caused by hazards like earthquakes and tsunamis, climate change is stoking extreme weather phenomena such as hurricanes and heatwaves, affecting millions of people and repeatedly undermining development gains, panellists at the meeting said. “We know for a fact that disasters, resulting from natural hazards and extreme events associated with climate change, can lead to significant economic losses and have major repercussions for global trade and the sustainable development prospects of the most vulnerable countries,” UNCTAD Deputy Secretary-General Isabelle Durant said.
“With the adoption of the Sendai Framework and the Paris Agreement on climate change, the international community has strengthened its commitment to address these threats seriously.”
The Sendai Framework, a 15-year, voluntary, non-binding agreement which recognizes that states have the primary role to reduce disaster risk but that responsibility should be shared with other stakeholders including local government and the private sector, was endorsed by the UN General Assembly following the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, held in Sendai, Japan, in 2015.
It was also the first building block of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted in September 2015.
New research commissioned by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) found that in 1998-2017, disaster-hit countries experienced direct economic losses valued at $2.9 trillion, of which climate-related disasters caused $2.2 trillion or 77% of the total. This is up from 68% ($895 billion) of losses ($1.3 trillion) reported between 1978 and 1997. Overall, reported losses from extreme weather events rose by 151% between these two 20-year periods.