Interview: Reduce disaster risk or fall further behind with responses, says UN expert

The world will fall further and further behind in responding to disasters if the international community does not find a way to reduce disaster risks, the top UN disaster official told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Robert Glasser, the special representative of the UN secretary-general for disaster risk reduction, spoke to Xinhua ahead of the first anniversary of the Sendai Disaster Risk Reduction Framework, which was adopted by UN member states on March 18, 2015.

Under the framework, all UN member states are committed to a new approach to disasters focused on risk reduction as well as disaster response.

"We already know that currently we're not able to meet the financial requirements that we need for the responses to the existing disasters," said Glasser. "We also know that (disasters) are going to increase in frequency and severity with climate change and population (growth)."

EARLY WARNING

Glasser said several recent examples showed that investments in disaster risk reduction can be effective.

"You have to actually look behind the headlines to see," said Glasser. "The newspaper story said just 'hundreds killed' but the actual story was that there wasn't tens of thousands killed."

He pointed to recent examples including a cyclone in Bangladesh and a severe earthquake in Chile.

"If you look at Bangladesh, about 15 or 20 years ago there was a huge cyclone that hit Bangladesh and it killed tens of thousands of people and just a decade later there was a similar strength cyclone that had a very similar track through the country and it killed just hundreds of people," he said.

The difference in the impact of the two cyclones was in part because Bangladesh had put in place early warning systems and storm shelters, he said.

While in Chile, he said, adherence to building codes meant that there was virtually no damage after a recent severe earthquake.

"Often the fact that the losses weren't greater is the evidence that things are working," he said.

The problem is that countries struggling to keep up with responding to disasters as they happen can find it difficult to invest in reducing the risk by preparing for future disasters.

"Because, of course, we have to respond, people are dying immediately, if you don't get them food and shelter and clean water, you have a disaster," he said. However, the investment in reducing risks was still essential since otherwise "we will just fall further and further behind in our delivery of response."

The Sendai framework, said Glasser, commits member states to comprehensively reduce disaster risk, for example, through early warning systems or enforcing building codes. But the best effective way to reduce risk, says Glasser is to address climate change.

"I can't think of a single more effective disaster risk reduction measure than to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," he said.

CHINESE CONTRIBUTION

The Chinese government's decision to join other countries in adopting the Paris climate agreement in December last year and "to peak carbon dioxide emissions and move to the alternative sources of energy is a huge contribution to global disaster risk reduction, but also to supporting China's own efforts to reduce disaster risk," said Glasser.

Global temperature increases of two or more degrees above pre-industrial levels "will cause such a radical change to our life support systems," worsening all kinds of disasters from storms to food insecurity, pandemics and conflict.

In addition to addressing climate change, China has moved very quickly to implement the Sendai framework, he said.

China has integrated disaster risk into its 13th national five-year plan, which means the plan "is now aligned with the Sendai framework quite fundamentally," he said.

China has set up a National Disaster Risk Reduction Centre, and has implemented a four-level disaster response system from national to township levels, he said.

It has also become a leader in implementing disaster risk reduction measures, said Glasser, adding that China has succeeded in reducing direct economic losses within a target of 1.5 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) over the last four consecutive years, he said. "It's quite an accomplishment."

China's approach to disaster risk reduction is important because it is the world's most disaster-prone country, said Glasser.

"If you look at the ranks of the top disaster-prone countries, China is at the top of the list," Glasser said, noting "This is in part due to China's high population but also associated with China's rapid development.

At the same time, China is also active in providing infrastructure to countries in Africa and Asia and building infrastructure appropriately can help reduce disaster risk, he said. Enditem