Ministerial Round Table 1 (“Accelerating the achievement of the Sendai Framework: Benefits of coherence and integrated approach with SDGs and Climate Change”)

GP2019 SRSG Speech Ministerial Round Table 1 (“Accelerating the achievement of the Sendai Framework: Benefits of coherence and integrated approach with SDGs and Climate Change”)

15 May 2019

I think it would be hard to overstate the benefits of coherence across our necessarily complementary efforts to eradicate poverty and hunger, to reduce disaster losses and to take action on climate change.

In many ways the adoption of the Sendai Framework by UN member States laid the foundation for the entire 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

If we do not succeed in reducing economic losses and the numbers of people affected by extreme weather events, then low and middle income countries will continue to struggle on the road to sustainable development.

Why? Because they will continue to lose a large percentage of their GDP to floods, storms, droughts and heatwaves. They will see large sections of their populations displaced and thrown into poverty. They will struggle with affordable access to basic necessities such as food, health services and education.

The very fabric of society can often unravel in the face of extreme weather events and humanitarian response is not the answer. We have to get smarter at prevention.

We know that climate change is ramping up both the number and impact of extreme weather events. While efforts must continue to scale back greenhouse gas emissions, the world also has to arm itself to face the unavoidable consequences that already flow from the record levels of CO2 and other gases in the atmosphere.

I am sometimes concerned that in the focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, climate change adaptation does not always get the attention it deserves.

We are seeing signs that it is coming increasingly to the fore in the coordinated development of national and local strategies for disaster risk reduction, which need to be completed by 2020, and the National Adaptation Plans. This presents a unique opportunity to ensure a coherent and well-coordinated approach and is one that cannot be missed. And that is something that this Global Platform can encourage further.

I hope that this discussion will help us to synchronize our efforts to implement the Sendai Framework, the Paris Agreement and the SDGs.

A key motivation for many low and middle income countries where resources are stretched, is that through coordinating on the implementation of these framework agreements they will benefit from more effective policies and investments while at the same time ensuring that development efforts do not exacerbate existing and future levels of disaster risk including climate risk.