October 13 is the International Day for Disaster Reduction. The overall theme of the International Day for Disaster Reduction (IDDR) in 2018 is reducing the economic loss of disasters.
In advance of IDDR the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction has public the report, that demonstrates a dramatic rise of 151% in direct economic losses from climate-related disasters within last twenty years and reflects the increase in climate-related disasters by 9% in comparison to the period from 1978 to 1997.
The study also demonstrates, that during this period of last twenty years, 1.3 million people lost their lives and 4.4 billion people were injured, rendered homeless, displaced or in need of emergency assistance.
563 earthquakes, including related tsunamis, accounted for 56% of total deaths or 747,234 lives lost. The report’s analysis makes it clear that economic losses from extreme weather events are unsustainable and a major brake on eradicating poverty in hazard exposed parts of the world. Natural disasters undermine the progress towards nearly all SDGs by sweeping away the important resources from development.
It corresponds to Target (c) of the Sendai Framework, a voluntary agreement
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 was adopted by UN Member States on 18 March 2015 at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. The Sendai Framework is the first major agreement of the post-2015 development agenda, with seven targets and four priorities for action.
