24 April 2009: Speaking at the Tsunami Lessons Learned event, which took place in New York, US, on 24 April 2009, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed the importance of sharing lessons learned from disaster responses.

Underlining the need for coordination, he called for tackling climate change and the economic crisis simultaneously. Ban underscored that climate change increases the frequency and intensity of weather-related disasters and urged adopting a response to the economic crisis that “advances climate goals,” noting that it would also “advance goals in disaster risk reduction.” He recalled the pledges made by leaders of the G-20 at their recent meeting in London, UK, towards a Green New Deal and reaching agreement at the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen, and noted that he had just launched the “Seal a Deal” campaign. [The statement]