DRR-CCA Thought Leadership Course - Synergizing Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation

At current levels of warming the world is experiencing unprecedented climate impacts. An increase in global average temperature above 1.5˚C would mean extreme weather and climate disasters increasing in frequency and intensity, putting billions of people at risk. A growing impact of the climate emergency, experienced across countries, communities, and systems, has necessitated taking drastic measures and corrective actions. This includes both closing the emission gaps, as well as efforts to adapt and prepare for a world warmer than 1.5˚C.

Disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation are synergistic, however, the governance of the two have evolved in parallel at both global and national levels. National DRR strategies and National Adaptation Plans are often developed in isolation of each other, resulting in suboptimal utilization of resources given common risk-reducing and vulnerability reduction objectives of both the actions.

Conversely, synergy in risk reduction and adaptation can bring considerable gains. Successful experiences carried out in the Pacific region shows that enhanced DRR- CCA integration is beneficial for both areas. This becomes even more significant given considerable investments being made and mobilized in actions like early warning systems and infrastructure resilience including nature-based solutions, that feature as both disaster risk reduction and adaptation measures.

The Paris Agreement calls for comprehensive risk management as key to enhancing understanding, action and support on losses and damages. The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction seeks to increase national and local DRR strategies wherein coherence in policy is a stated objective. Hence, the integrated planning and implementation of national adaptation plans, and disaster risk reduction plans holds high significance as a key enabler for implementation.

It is with this objective that the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and the UN System Staff College are collaborating to develop a DRR-CCA Thought Leadership Course that aims to outline the need for and importance of pursuing integrated approaches. The learning modules will be designed to offer practical information on the benefits, challenges, and opportunities of integrating DRR-CCA planning processes at the country level.