Brief communication: Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction – success or warning sign for Paris?

Jaroslav Mysiak,Reinhard Mechler,Swenja Surminski,Annegret Thieken,Jeroen Aerts

doi:10.5194/nhess-16-2189-2016

Abstract

Abstract. In March 2015, a new international blueprint for disaster risk reduction (DRR) was adopted in Sendai, Japan, at the end of the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR, 14–18 March 2015). We review and discuss the agreed commitments and targets, as well as the negotiation leading the Sendai Framework for DRR (SFDRR) and discuss briefly its implication for the later UN-led negotiations on sustainable development goals and climate change.

Highlights

Rising losses from extreme weather events and unequivocal evidence about climate change provide the backdrop of current international efforts to achieve agreement on emission reductions and foster greater climate resilience
The year 2015 has the potential to mark a key milestone in these efforts – with several related policy processes culminating, offering a chance to integrate disaster risk reduction, climate change policy, and poverty reduction more closely
Within the UN System, disaster risk reduction (DRR) has been raised as a global policy priority since the late 1980s, when the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the 1990s as the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction

Summary

Introduction

Rising losses from extreme weather events and unequivocal evidence about climate change provide the backdrop of current international efforts to achieve agreement on emission reductions and foster greater climate resilience. The year 2015 has the potential to mark a key milestone in these efforts – with several related policy processes culminating, offering a chance to integrate disaster risk reduction, climate change policy, and poverty reduction more closely. Earlier this year, government delegates and international disaster risk communities got together in Sendai, Japan, to sanction a new international covenant on disaster risk reduction (DRR). By the end of the year, all going well, the world’s political leaders will have agreed on ambitious, binding climate mitigation targets as a part of a new global commitment to sustainable development

The road to Sendai

The outcome

Are we on track with integrating climate and development policy?

Findings

Will Sendai matter?