9 November 2009
reduction and climate change adaptation
Panama - More than 90 world experts have assembled today in Panama City to start a new
assessment on how climate change will affect disaster risks in future and how countries can better
manage the expected increases in damaging weather events due to climate change. The meeting is
being convened by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which decided in April
2009 to prepare a new IPCC Special Report called: “Managing the Risk of Extreme Events and
Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation”. The assessment was proposed by the United
Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) and the government of Norway in
response to the predictions in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report that more frequent and severe
extreme events such as droughts, floods, storms, heat waves were likely in the future warmer world.
The experts will undertake an extensive survey of available scientific and technical information
over 2010, and their assessment will be delivered in a report to be released in 2011, following
worldwide critical technical and governmental review. The assessment is the first global scientific
effort to examine the linkages between disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change.
The experts will assess measures that governments and people can take to build resilience to
weather and climate hazards and examine practices, strategies and approaches that communities can
use to adapt to climate change. The IPCC team combines the forces of economists, sociologists, risk
analysts, hydrologists, agricultural experts, health researchers, and risk reduction practitioners
alongside climate scientists, drawn from a wide range of developing and developed countries.
“The IPCC Special Report is a collective effort that will shine a spotlight on the working policies
and tools that people have been using for years to manage and adapt to natural variations of the
climate. It will inform Governments about what works best to reduce disaster risks and manage
extreme events, and how to cut down on future losses of lives and assets,” says Margareta
The decision to carry out the assessment marks a new realization that disaster risk reduction will be
a first line of defence in adapting to climate change. Climate change negotiators preparing for the
Copenhagen Climate Conference have already penciled in the need for disaster risk reduction
strategies and risk management and the importance of the Hyogo Framework for Action – a ten-
year blueprint for reducing risks to disasters worldwide. The Special Report will provide
authoritative guidance on how to move ahead in proven practical terms.
