17 October 2017: In light of the accumulation of disasters over the past month, which have included hurricanes in the Atlantic, floods in Asia and wildfires in parts of Europe and the US, disaster risk management (DRM) has taken the center stage in many activities. Resilience building, early warning systems and global disaster losses monitoring have been the focus of the recent efforts and initiatives by the UN, governments and the private sector.

With Ophelia being the most recent of many named hurricanes during the Atlantic hurricane season, an article published by the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) warns that “most researchers who study extreme events like hurricanes agree that climate change is most likely making the impacts of these events much worse.” The publication finds that “the warming of the climate has increased the underlying probabilities of very heavy rain events like happened in Harvey and very high category hurricanes like Irma.”

At its peak, Ophelia strengthened to category three, and hit the farthest east and the farthest north of all Atlantic hurricanes on record. [WMO Press Release] [GFDL Overview of Current Research Results on Global Warming and Hurricanes]

Robert Glasser highlighted the need “to get better at identifying what works in reducing disaster losses” in order to achieve the SDGs and eradicate poverty.

The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) announced that, as of 2018, it will carry out its worldwide monitoring of disaster losses from extreme weather events and earthquakes through an office in Bonn, Germany. Speaking at the UN Campus in Bonn, UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Head of UNISDR Robert Glasser called for switching from disaster management to disaster risk management. He highlighted the need “to get better at identifying what works in reducing disaster losses” in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and eradicate poverty, particularly in light of climate change. [UNISDR Press Release]

Business representatives gathered in Miami, US, on 12 October 2017, to launch ARISE-US, a US chapter of the Private Sector Alliance for Disaster Resilient Societies (ARISE). ARISE is a UN-backed global initiative to create greater understanding of disaster risk in the business community, safeguard future investments and reduce economic losses from disasters. [UNISDR Press Release] [ARISE Flyer]

A joint WMO-World Bank mission comprising experts in meteorology, hydrology, civil protection, food security and geospatial data management met with Niger’s government representatives involved in the country’s early warning systems to advance the implementation of a project titled ‘Niger Strengthening Early Warning Services.’ Funded by the Climate Risk and Early Warning System (CREWS) initiative, with support from the Governments of Australia, France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, the project has made advances in identifying areas exposed to riverine flood risk and flash flood risks.

CREWS is a partnership of the WMO, World Bank and its Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), and UNISDR. [WMO Press Release]

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The SDG Knowledge Hub publishes regular adaptation and loss and damage updates that can be found under the tag Adaptation and Loss and Damage Update.