9 November 2009: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has initiated work on a Special Report entitled “Managing the Risk of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation,” at a meeting of 90 experts in Panama City, Panama.
Experts will assess how climate change will affect disaster risks in the future and how countries can better manage the expected increases in damaging weather events due to climate change.
The Special Report was proposed jointly by the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR) and the Government of Norway in response to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report predictions that more frequent and severe extreme events, such as droughts, floods, storms and heat waves, were likely in the future warmer world. The assessment will be released in 2011, and is the first global scientific effort to examine the linkages between disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change.
UN/ISDR is supporting the IPCC’s preparation by providing technical information on the topic and making it available for assessment by IPCC authors. UN/ISDR will gather regional and thematic material on good practice, case studies, operational policies and practices, government publications and other sources to complement traditional academic literature. [UN/ISDR Press Release][IPCC Special Report website]