UNDRR News

The head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, Mr. Robert Glasser, today marked the anniversary of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake which struck Nepal last year with a call for greater investment in resilient infrastructure if the death toll from future earthquakes is to be reduced.

UNISDR chief, Mr. Robert Glasser, has praised the leaders of 15 UN member States particularly vulnerable to climate change for being the first to ratify the Paris Agreement on climate.

Six southern African countries have taken a key step in their efforts to implement the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, a 15-year global agreement to curb the impact of natural and man-made hazards, by starting a programme to harness data.

UNISDR chief, Mr. Robert Glasser, calls on signatories to the Paris Agreement on climate to go beyond their existing commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions if the world is to avoid catastrophic future weather events.

The hundreds of deaths in Ecuador and the dozens of victims in Japan are a stark reminder of a basic fact about earthquakes: it is buildings, and not the shake itself, that claim most lives.

Hundreds of people are dead or missing as a result of a series of earthquakes in Japan and Ecuador in recent days. Reducing earthquake risk is an important objective of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction says UNISDR chief Mr. Robert Glasser.

Trillions of dollars of new investment are expected to pour into in hazard-prone areas by 2030, dramatically increasing the global value of assets at risk. Factoring that into capital investments, supply chains and operations will be decisive for business resilience and the success of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

An international business group working to reduce the impact of natural and man-made hazards has pledged to ensure that the private sector plays its part in implementing the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction promotes good land use and compliance with building codes and regulations. The World Bank Group has announced a new program to tackle the issues.

Disaster risk reduction is an election issue in one of the world's most disaster-prone countries, the Philippines, which holds presidential, national and local elections on May 9.