Strengthening Disaster and Climate Risk Governance at National and Local Levels for Accelerated Progress on SDGs
The growing impact of the climate emergency and the certainty that the 1.5° threshold will be breached, points to the urgency to scale-up disaster risk reduction (DRR) and build resilience. While progress has been made in creating coherence across global frameworks, for instance through alignment in reporting mechanisms, gaps remain when it comes to aligning implementation.
The systemic and interconnected nature of risk calls for an integrated, multi-sector, multi-hazard and multi-level approach that systematically integrates disaster and climate risk management to its governance. Climate and disaster risk management should be embedded in the larger domain of governance that is preventive, adaptive, anticipatory, absorptive and transformative. Planning and investments need to be risk-informed, to avoid creating new risk and maladaptation.
The GP2022, building on the decisions and outcomes of the COP 26, provides the global community with a unique opportunity to identify means to strengthen climate and disaster risk governance. This High-Level Dialogue will showcase how integrated climate and disaster risk governance can be achieved by overcoming persistent challenges and building on successful examples. It will consider how to ‘build back better’ in the years to come and in the remaining period of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Session objectives
- Stress the importance of comprehensive climate and disaster risk management for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and for integrated approaches to analysing, planning, implementing, and monitoring disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, at both national and local levels.
- Demonstrate how integrated climate and disaster risk governance can be implemented and improved, building on experiences since the adoption of the Sendai Framework for DRR and the Paris Agreement.
- Discuss how to overcome persistent challenges and leverage the learnings and opportunities of the COVID-19 recovery and ‘building back better’ for strengthening the integrated governance of multi-dimensional/systemic risk within and across sectors and systems.
- Emphasize the role of laws, strategies and policies, at both national and local levels, as well as multi-hazard early warning systems and multi-stakeholder coordination mechanisms, for enhancing inclusiveness, gender responsiveness and accountability.
Moderator
- Andini Effendi - Independent Journalist
Speakers
- Selwin Hart - Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on Climate Action & Assistant Secretary-General for the Climate Action Team, Executive Office of the Secretary-General, United Nations
- Filimon Manoni - Deputy Secretary General, Pacific Islands Forum secretariat
- Jochen Steinhilber - Director General for Displacement, Crisis Prevention and Civil Society, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany
- Mark Howden - Director, Australian National University, Institute for Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions
- Natalia Gómez Solano - President, Costa Rican Youth and Climate Change Network
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Learn more about why integrated climate and disaster risk management governance is important and how it can be ensured through comprehensive risk management
Where do we stand
Key Challenges
- The impact of climate emergency is growing and will be increasingly felt. Climate-related disasters have almost doubled compared to the previous twenty years and the frequency and spread of extreme events such as droughts, floods and storms will considerably increase in future.
- Governance mechanisms in countries remain siloed dealing with climate change and disaster risk separately, impeded by institutional and financing barriers. Such gaps can often be worsened by trade-offs in implementation between sectors.
- Capacity gaps remain across governance mechanisms, especially in least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
Opportunities
- There is a growing understanding and political will to adopt integrated approaches across governance structures.
- Increasing risk analytics, the big data revolution and the sustainable development goals (SDGs) provide common bases for integrated planning and implementation. Tools and guidance on integrated governance of climate and disaster risk have been developed that need to be applied and turned into concrete actions through capacity development.
- Good practices exist across countries and regions that need to be replicated and contextualized to national needs.
- Effective partnerships and coordination mechanisms have been developed that can support countries to successfully implement multi-sectoral, multi-hazard and multi-stakeholder approaches.
Session guiding questions
- How have national and local strategies for disaster and climate resilience evolved since 2015 and what have been the main takeaways in meeting Target E of the Sendai Framework? How have the relevant and complementary sectoral planning processes evolved?
- Which governance arrangements have enabled the implementation of comprehensive risk management strategies and plans? Which governance challenges have hindered implementation?
- What should we do to accelerate actions stemming from both the Sendai Framework and Paris Agreement at the local levels?
- What are the COVID-19 crisis and the climate emergency teaching the DRR community in adapting disaster risk governance?
- What is required in terms of accelerators and, drivers to transform the way we work?
- Where do we want to be by 2030, and what needs to happen in the coming years to get there?
Agenda
Location
BNDCC 1-Ground Floor
Online access
Interpretation
AR, EN, FR, RU, ES, ZHDetails
Contact
Animesh Kumar, animesh.kumar@un.org Andrew Mackay Bower, andrew.bower@un.org Iria Touzon Calle, iria.touzoncalle@un.org