Remarks by SRSG Mizutori, Climate Vulnerable Forum Global Parliamentarians Meeting, “Parliamentarians of Climate Threatened Nations Championing Planetary Prosperity”

Source(s): United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction
Mami Mizutori, UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reductiion

Mami Mizutori, UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reductiion

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Remarks by SRSG Mizutori

CLIMATE VULNERABLE FORUM GLOBAL PARLIAMENTARIANS MEETING

“Parliamentarians of Climate Threatened Nations Championing Planetary Prosperity”

Webinar Organized by the Climate Vulnerable Forum in Collaboration with the Inter-Parliamentary Union and Global Center on Adaptation

Date: Wednesday 25 November 2020

Excellencies, Distinguished Parliamentarians, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It was already apparent before the pandemic that the world was struggling to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals given the steep rise in climate-related disasters over the last twenty years.

The eradication of poverty becomes impossible if you are losing a sizable percentage of your GDP year after year due to extreme weather events.

Last year 25 million people were forced from their homes by extreme weather.

The slow progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the inadequate levels of investment in adaptation to climate change for climate vulnerable countries, points to major shortcomings in disaster risk governance.

The underlying weakness of disaster risk governance globally was revealed most clearly by the failure to prepare adequately for the COVID-19 pandemic despite many warnings and the inclusion - at the insistence of UN member States - of biological hazards in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Moving from words to action is always a challenge but failure to do so is costly.

The lessons learned to date from the climate emergency and the pandemic must now be applied as we strengthen both nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement and national strategies for disaster risk reduction under the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Parliamentarians have a crucial role to play in ensuring that these plans are realistic and that resources are allocated to ensure their implementation is supported by appropriate legislation and regulation.

Nationally Determined Contributions embody efforts by each country to reduce national emissions and adapt to climate change. The majority highlight disaster risk reduction as a priority.

Similarly, adaptation to climate change is a constant thread through the 93 national strategies for disaster risk reduction that have been developed to date.

Parliamentarians have an essential role to play in the national debates on the development of these instruments and ensuring that they are coherent and complementary.

This requires a systemic and integrated approach to disaster risk and recognition that beyond climate change there are a range of risk drivers which also need to be addressed through environmental protection, regulation of land use and building codes, and poverty reduction measures.

This approach will be reflected in the new Parliamentarian toolkit for disaster risk reduction which we will launch with the Inter-Parliamentary Union in early 2021.

We look forward to working with all of you to ensure that good use is made of it at both national and local level.

Thank you for your attention.

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