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“Disaster risk reduction is an obligation for all–donors, governments and the private sector,” said Toni Frisch from the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Department. “We cannot wait for more disasters to happen to understand the benefits of disaster risk reduction policies. It is easy to show the damage caused by a disaster but much more difficult to get attention when the damage is invisible.”

This year's theme: My City is Getting Ready! To mark the International Day for Disaster Reduction, the UNISDR secretariat is calling on its partners to play a more active role to protect cities against disasters. Many cities have been disrupted this year by disasters: earthquakes in Haiti, Chile and New Zealand; floods and heavy rainfalls in Pakistan, Eastern Europe, Mozambique and other parts of Africa; forest fires in Russia; and volcanic eruptions in Indonesia and Iceland. All have caused huge human suffering and economic damage. Cities have never been so at risk.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union passed a resolution, which calls on their governments to provide adequate and accessible resources to support the UN in developing a parliamentary programme on disaster risk reduction that focuses on mitigation, prevention and preparedness and UN agencies involved in providing disaster assistance. UNISDR, the UN’s agency for disaster risk reduction, is calling on international lawmakers to take action on disaster risk reduction as a means to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and adapt to climate change.

The new executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Christiana Figueres, says events making the news have provided a vision of a future of intense global climate disasters no one wants. 'The point is clear, we cannot afford to face escalating disasters of that kind,' she stated...

Offers a comprehensive insight into the work of the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology, MeteoSwiss, as the national provider of weather and climate services in Switzerland, protecting the Swiss public against weather and climate risks and

Dans des situations indiquant l'imminence d'un danger naturel majeur, les organes fédéraux compétents alerteront désormais la population via la radio et la télévision. Le 18 août 2010, le Conseil fédéral a adopté à cet effet une révision complète de l'ordonnance sur l'alarme...

Israeli research teams with Italy, France, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland and Romania to create a reliable early warning system for railways in order to prevent accidents caused by avalanches, earthquakes and even terrorists...

Climate change could cause increasing and unpredictable hazard risks in mountainous regions, according to a new study by the University of Exeter and Austrian researchers...