IPCC report on climate change and risk coming soon

Source(s): United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction

GENEVA, 10 February 2012 - A new groundbreaking report due out next month underlines how the well-being of vulnerable, impoverished populations living in parts of the world most exposed to disasters fuelled by climate change, will be severely undermined in the coming century.

A video introducing the Special Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - Managing the risks of extreme events and disasters to advance climate change adaptation, showcases it as the first IPCC report that integrates the work of researchers studying disaster risk management with climate science, climate impacts, and adaptation to climate change.

"The diversity of the report is one of its most outstanding aspects", states Prof. Chris Field, Co-Chair IPCC Working Group and director of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology.

"For progress moving forward, there are real opportunities to effectively integrate what is known about vulnerabilities, what is known about exposure; and what is known about the change in the climate. More information can lead to better decisions. There are a lot of things that individuals, communities and governments can do in order to reduce disaster risks and increase the resilience of the people exposed to extreme events." says Field.

The head of the UN office for disaster risk reduction, UNISDR, Margareta Wahlström believes the report is the most intensive examination ever undertaken of the relationship between disaster impacts and socio-economic vulnerability.

"It is obvious that climate change will roll back development gains and drive more people into deeper poverty unless there is a dramatic scaling up of investments in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. The report breaks new ground and is a historic contribution to understanding disaster risk reduction," she says.

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