UN body warns of 40% rise in disasters by 2030

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) warns disasters are expected to increase by 40 percent by 2030.

Marco Toscano Rivalta, UNDRR chief of the regional office for Asia and the Pacific made this statement on Thursday's launch of the Asia Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Manila.

“The stark projection indicates that we are going off course from the goal we set in the Global Blueprint for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Sendai Framework in 2015. We are building risk rather than decreasing it”, Rivalta said.

The Sendai Framework is a global agreement created to help countries plan, respond, and build back from disasters, named after a city in Japan where UN member states adopted it in March 2015.

To get on track and to double down, leaders of governments and the private sector will come together at the Asia Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction this coming October 14-18 at the PICC in Pasay City.

Around 2,500 delegates from 62 countries are expected to participate in the conference. 

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said one of the direct impacts of the conference is the opportunity to access risk financing.

Funds for disaster response and rehabilitation, Teodoro added, are already thinly stretched due to worsening disasters.

"Ang access to financing ito ay trinatrabaho talaga natin ngunit mas kaklaro ang ating access sa available financing di lamang sa inception ng proyekto kundi sa pag-ensure ng mga infrastructure na nakatayo na, ang kwestyon dito ang halaga ng financing at ang cost sa ating bansa," he said.

Environment Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo Loyzaga also said they are looking at financial schemes that are focused on disaster risk and resilience at the community level.

UNDRR works globally towards the prevention of new disaster risks and the reduction of existing risk and promotes the strengthening of resilience through multi-hazard disaster risk management, according to its website.—LDF, GMA Integrated News