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Disaster Risk Reduction

UN News/Vibhu Mishra

Asia-Pacific mired in vicious climate-disaster nexus

Climate-induced disasters in Asia and the Pacific have become increasingly frequent and severe, resulting in loss of lives and livelihoods, hampering the post-pandemic recovery and potentially derailing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The effects of devastating floods, severe droughts and rising sea levels are not confined within national borders; they have international implications too, including for trade, communal tensions and forced migration. Climate change is only making things worse.  

Audio Duration
7'23"
© Unsplash/Arvind Vallabh

News in Brief 25 July 2023

  • Yemen: UN starts high-risk operation to prevent catastrophic oil spill from decaying tanker
  • IAEA: Anti-personnel mines found in Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine
  • UN warns of looming disaster emergency in Asia-Pacific region
Audio
2'53"
A classroom is filled with mud after a river overflowed during storms Eta and Iota in El Tenedor, Guatemala.
© UNICEF/Santiago Billy/AFP-Services

First Person: Rising from disaster

Disasters can reverse hard-won development gains by decades and leave the most vulnerable populations more exposed to deadly risks. As nations gathered this week to take stock of how the world is better preparing for disasters in line with the Sendai Framework, Raul Salazar shared a view for UN News, from the Americas, a region that accounts for 53 per cent of global hazard-related economic losses, alongside high mortality rates.

People flee their homes as Cyclone Freddy hits Blantyre city in Malawi.
© UNICEF

Avoiding disaster in a dangerous world

More people globally are being affected by disasters than ever before, despite the adoption of a UN-backed international disaster reduction agreement in 2015. Experts from around the world are gathering at UN Headquarters to speed up efforts to fully implement that agreement to bring about a safer world.

Audio Duration
19'12"