One climate crisis disaster happening every week, UN warns
Climate
crisis disasters are happening at the rate of one a week, though most draw
little international attention and work is urgently needed to prepare
developing countries for the profound impacts, the UN has warned. Catastrophes
such as cyclones Idai and Kenneth in
Mozambique and the drought
afflicting India make headlines around the world. But large numbers of
“lower impact events” that are causing death, displacement and suffering are
occurring much faster than predicted, said Mami Mizutori, the UN
secretary-general’s special representative on disaster risk reduction. “This is
not about the future, this is about today.”
This
means that adapting to the climate crisis could no longer be seen as a
long-term problem, but one that needed investment now, she said. “People need
to talk more about adaptation and resilience.” Estimates
put the cost of climate-related disasters at $520bn a year, while the
additional cost of building infrastructure that is resistant to the effects of
global heating is only about 3%, or $2.7tn in total over the next 20 years. Mizutori
said: “This is not a lot of money [in the context of infrastructure spending],
but investors have not been doing enough. Resilience needs to become a
commodity that people will pay for.” That would mean normalising the standards
for new infrastructure, such as housing, road and rail networks, factories,
power and water supply networks, so that they were less vulnerable to the
effects of floods, droughts, storms and extreme weather... read more:
