UNDRR News

Efforts to reduce the threat posed by natural and man-made hazards will get a fresh boost this weekend when world leaders adopt a new global sustainable development agenda that aims to eradicate extreme poverty, promote prosperity and people’s well-being, while protecting the environment.

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction is “a fundamental stepping stone marking this year of global action for people and the planet,” according to UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon in remarks to a gathering of Speakers of Parliament from around the world.

Indigenous knowledge is an important source of wisdom for sustainability, UN Secretary-General Bank Ki-moon says, underlining an issue that it is also crucial for disaster risk reduction.

As this September’s anticipated UN Summit to adopt the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) draws near, intergovernmental discussions in New York are focusing on how their implementation will be measured and tracked.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today warned that “growing global inequality, increasing exposure to natural hazards, rapid urbanization and the overconsumption of energy and natural resources threaten to drive risk to dangerous and unpredictable levels with systemic global impacts.”

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction has designated the City of Hoboken, New Jersey, USA, as a Role Model City of the Making Cities Resilient campaign for its flood risk management practices. These include plans to retain over a million gallons of stormwater runoff through green infrastructure.

This week’s UN Climate Summit has generated commitments to raise $2 billion of in-kind and direct support for cities threatened by extreme weather events fuelled by climate change.

Eighteen students at Saint Peter’s University in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States, have just completed the university’s first-ever course on disaster risk reduction, in part as a result of Hurricane Sandy which killed at least 117 people and caused $65 billion worth of damage in the US alone.

Following on a statement by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that “economic losses are out of control and can only be reduced in partnership with the private sector,” the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) today launched the R!SE Initiative to mainstream disaster risk management into corporate planning and investment decision-making.

The vital role of cities as engines of climate resilience has been recognised with the appointment of the former mayor of New York City, Michael R. Bloomberg, as Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change, by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.