UNDRR ROAMC & IFRC: Integrating Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction Agendas

English and Spanish Interpretation available!

Millions of people are falling back into poverty each year due to shocks ranging from both localized severe weather to major disaster events including drought, floods and storms and, as demonstrated by COVID-19, pandemic and epidemic disease.

Environmental changes driven by climate change and unsustainable exploitation of the earth’s resources are rendering many people and ecosystems ever more vulnerable thus increasing the scale and frequency of hazards. Risk-blind investments and development choices weave hazards, exposure and economic, social and environmental vulnerabilities together into an intricate filigree of disaster risk. This has created a systemic pattern of disaster risk which is now eroding development processes across all sectors.

The projected temperature increase of 3.2°C in the global climate is estimated to cause “once-in-one-hundred-year” events to occur every decade and threatens to render existing risk management strategies obsolete. Only good disaster risk governance can turn this crisis into an opportunity to invest in low-carbon technologies and turn away from dependence on fossil fuels.

The COVID-19 recovery must be green and sustainable but we will have to live with the consequences of the record levels of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere for a long time to come. It is important then that we continue to focus on integration and coherence in efforts to reduce disaster risk and adapt to climate change while also paying attention to emergency health management. To help build resilience to climate and disaster risks, countries must be supported to identify and leverage relevant technical, financial, and organizational capacities in all sectors of society. 

Date: 9th September, 2020. 2:00 p.m. (Panama time)

FACILITATOR/ SPEAKERS: 

Nahuel Arenas
Deputy Chief, Regional Office for the Americas & the Caribbean
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)

Potential speakers:
Donna Mitzi Lagdameo
UNDRR Bonn office
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)
Topic: “Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation Pathways for policy coherence”

Vintura Silva
Regional Lead
Regional Collaboration Centre St George’s 
UNFCCC
Topic: #Bringing coherence in the Caribbean Region through NDCs"

Piedad Martin
Officer in Charge, Deputy Regional Director, Latin America and the Caribbean
United Nations Environment Programme
Topic: “From coherence to practice: Nature-based solutions”