UNDRR News

Following devastating floods and landslides earlier this year affecting over one million people, a major regional insurance conference opens today in Belgrade to highlight the benefits that disaster risk financing can bring to a region where there is a growing culture of disaster risk reduction through implementation of the priorities laid out in the Hyogo Framework for Action.

The Iranian City of Qom is providing a dynamic example of local leadership as consultations on the post-2015 international framework for disaster risk reduction identify the issue as a priority.

This week’s UN Climate Summit has generated commitments to raise $2 billion of in-kind and direct support for cities threatened by extreme weather events fuelled by climate change.

A major initiative to examine climate risk stress testing for banking and securities regulation and accounting practices was unveiled at the UN Climate Summit in New York by public and private sector organisations working together in response to the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events.

Software developers from around the world were recognized today at the UN Climate Summit for their ingenuity in devising life-saving apps for use in reducing the impact of extreme weather events on cities and coastal communities.

Heavy rains have caused major devastation over the weekend in the Philippines, France and Italy and may be further indications of the “new normal” that the world will have to deal with, if no accelerated action is taken to keep global warming within 2˚C.

As part of the build-up to the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan, next March, Geneva Airport is offering passengers the chance to engage with the planet through an inter-active digital globe, the Tangible Earth, developed by the Earth Literacy Programme at Kyoto University, Japan

One of the high points of this week’s Arab Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction came when a 19-year-old medical student took centre stage to read out a strong declaration on behalf of one of the region’s most endangered groups, children and youth.

The 19 Arab States meeting in Sharm-El-Sheikh, Egypt, this week have made a sweeping series of recommendations for inclusion in the post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction which will be adopted next March in Sendai, Japan, at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction. The Sharm-El-Sheikh declaration calls for a strong focus on water and food security, the effects of climate change and extreme weather events, including drought, on dry lands and arid zones which are home to two billion people around the world.

There were calls today for gender to be mainstreamed into the post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction in a major debate on the role of women as change agents for resilience at the 2nd Arab Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction.