World Bank: Disaster risk insurance: 5 insights from the Philippines
With disasters a growing threat, insurance for countries trying to manage climate and disaster risk is becoming increasingly critical. While insight on what works – and what doesn’t – to build resilience is still limited, the experience of the Philippines shows how countries can improve their protection to disasters by working with international insurance markets.
Science supporting policy in disaster risk management: providing the data and knowledge for transitioning to a climate-proof resilient society
The representatives of the EC’s Joint Research Centre recently discussed the INFORM risk assessment, an evidence-based methodology to support decision-making on humanitarian crises and disasters, extended recently to the regions of Caucasus and Central Asia and South Eastern Europe
Kiribati: Fishing for food and resilience
Located in the centre of the Pacific, the Republic of Kiribati is known for being one of the world’s smallest and most remote island nations. In fact, it is remarkably large: 33 atoll islands spread across an ocean territory of more than 3.5 million square kilometers. The vast waters – one of the world’s biggest Exclusive Economic Zones – constitute some of the richest and most diverse ecosystems on Earth, supporting hundreds of species as well as the livelihoods, health, culture, and way of life of local people. However, in the global narratives about climate change, island nations such as Kiribati have been seen as ‘poster children’ for the risks of a warming planet.
The need for medium-range forecasting in early warning systems to improve risk outcomes
High-impact weather events – floods, storms, cyclones – threaten human life and property, as well as affecting the economy and inflicting significant societal hazards. Being able to predict these events accurately, and with sufficient lead times, enables people to prepare for them. It is also more cost-effective: a dollar invested in disaster preparedness – which reduces people’s vulnerability to the impacts – can prevent six dollars’ worth of disaster-related economic losses.
One billion children at ‘extremely high risk’ of climate impacts
Young people living in the Central African Republic, Chad, Nigeria, Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau are the most at risk of the impacts of climate change, threatening their health, education, and protection, and exposing them to deadly diseases, according to a UNICEF report launched today. ‘The Climate Crisis Is a Child Rights Crisis: Introducing the Children’s Climate Risk Index’ is the first comprehensive analysis of climate risk from a child’s perspective. It ranks countries based on children’s exposure to climate and environmental shocks, such as cyclones and heatwaves, as well as their vulnerability to those shocks, based on their access to essential services.
Post-disaster needs assessments guidelines: Volume B – Environment
The main objective of PDNA–Environment is to prepare a recovery strategy that guides the restoration of environment and natural resources damaged due to a disaster. This should also enable environmentally friendly rebuilding in all sectors. The recovery plan also supports the restoration of environment and natural resources as a disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategy.
Words into Action: Nature-based solutions for disaster risk reduction
This guide aims to give practical, how-to-do information on setting up and implementing nature-based solutions (NbS), especially for disaster risk reduction (DRR), but also for climate change adaptation (CCA). It is designed to help implement the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 (hereafter referred to as the Sendai Framework). The Sendai Framework recognizes that environmental degradation can cause hazards and that disasters also have an impact on the environment.
From protection to prevention: The role of cooperative and mutual insurance in DRR
This report, prepared by the ICMIF-UNDRR collaboration, presents seven mechanisms gleaned from case studies compiled across the cooperative and mutual insurance sector and from a literature review on the role of insurance in supporting disaster risk reduction and resilience. It focuses on preventing new risks and reducing existing risk is more urgent than ever because disasters can erase development gains and hinder progress, often for years to come, such as in the case of floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, pandemics or major technological disasters.
UNDRR Briefing Package for UN Resident Coordinators and UN Country Teams
This briefing package sets out how UNDRR can better support UNRCs and UNCTs to deliver sustainable development benefits at a country level from a DRR angle. The options proposed here can be adjusted to meet the needs of the regional UN development system architecture. This package includes an information checklist, support tools and information that UNDRR has developed to support national governments and UN partners to reduce risks and losses as guided by the Sendai Framework.
Can ecosystems protect populations? New evidence published
While it is generally assumed that ecosystems, such as mangroves, coral reefs or sand dunes, play an important role in reducing risks from hazard events, there are few comprehensive studies that gather scientific evidence on the services these ecosystems provide, and the functions they fulfil for disaster risk reduction.
Nature-Based Solutions for Urban Resilience: Linking Science, Tech, Policy and Practice
Objectives of the webinar include discussing the current state of nature-based solutions that are undertaken globally and identifying success stories and how this can be replicated to scale for impact.
Workshop Announcement and Call for Applications: Enlargement and Integration – Digital Transformation, Data and AI in the Western Balkans
The workshop “Digital Transformation, Data and AI in the Western Balkans” aims to investigate how digital technologies, data and AI influence changes in our societies. Europe’s ambition is to become the world-leading region for developing and deploying cutting edge, ethical and secure AI, as well as to promote a human-centric approach in the global context.
9th Global Dialogue Platform on Anticipatory Humanitarian Action – Virtual Edition: 7th – 9th December 2021
Join us for a series of panel discussions, thematic presentations and interactive events that will bring together practitioners, scientists and government representatives from around the world to explore how anticipatory action can address the compounding and intertwined effects of the climate crisis, rising conflicts and economic shocks on the world’s most vulnerable people.
International Science Council – Health Inequalities: New Methods, Better Insights?
At this conference of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), the final report of the ALLEA/FEAM Health Inequalities project will be presented to a wider audience. The technical contents of this report, ‘Health inequalities: new methods, better insights?’, have already been discussed extensively at a series of well-attended workshops. This conference aims to provide a forum for discussing the implications of the report for research and policy. How can new research methods help us to better understand health inequalities, and how can better science help policymakers to reduce health inequalities more effectively?
#AGU21: Science is Society
The AGU Fall Meeting is the primary gathering for Earth and space scientists, students, and those in affiliated fields to share scientific findings and identify innovative solutions. With in-person and worldwide online participation, attendees will have numerous opportunities to network with government regulators, scientific visionaries, and industry thought-leaders. Join our diverse community in New Orleans and Online Everywhere 13 – 17 December 2021.
20th Swiss Climate Summer School 2022 – Extreme weather and climate
Swiss Climate Research, the network of leading Swiss institutions in climate research and education, invites young scientists (PhD students and postdocs) to join high-profile climate researchers in a scenic Swiss Alpine setting for keynote lectures, workshops and poster sessions on the occasion of the 20th Swiss Climate Summer School 2022.
