Why disaster and climate?

The number of disasters – be it natural or man-made – are increasing, especially weather-related disasters such as floods, storms, cyclones, drought and extreme temperatures, affecting over a third of the world’s population and causing severe damage over the last decade. In addition, climate change and environmental degradation is contributing significantly to an increase in disaster risk. The Red Cross / Red Crescent recorded a 210 per cent increase of disasters responded to by National RC/RC Societies between 2004 and 2007. The provisional figures for 2008 show a continued trend in the increase of disasters, mostly climate-related. Indeed the projected impact of climate change clearly demonstrates that we can anticipate a continued rise in the number of climate-related disasters, especially floods, cyclones and increase in new emerging diseases like malaria, as well as disease outbreaks and epidemics.

Whilst the increasing disasters have resulted in fewer deaths mainly due to increased efforts at disaster preparedness over the last 20 years, the resultant economic losses are growing. Disasters strike outside recognised and previously predictable patterns - geographically or seasonally. Thus, the socio-economic consequences increase as disasters may affect economic activity, harvests etc. and threaten traditional coping strategies. If current trends continue, natural disasters could have a global cost of more than USD 300 billion a year by 2050. Hence, engaging in efforts for disaster risk reduction and preparedness is highly cost-effective.

Climate change means that there will be more natural disasters requiring a humanitarian response, even in places previously unaffected. Flooding has been reported in areas where it was previously unheard of, and hurricanes are reported to be much more intensive and to last for longer periods directly affecting harvests. In Papua New Guinea, for example, Red Cross health officers are encountering cases of malaria further up the highlands as the temperatures rise and mosquitoes are able to survive at higher altitudes. These changing conditions impact on the socio-economic fabric of already vulnerable communities unaccustomed to certain types of disasters and with poor coping mechanisms to deal with the changing conditions.

Despite progresses within global health many challenges still remain. Access to basic health services, clean water and proper sanitation are still non-existent for the majority of the world’s population. Communicable diseases kill more than 14 million people every year. More than one billion people still lack access to safe water, 2.4 billion people lack basic sanitation, and many more suffer from malnutrition and disruption of livelihoods. Underlying this, Aids continues to attack the socio-economic fabric of society in the worst affected countries, further increasing vulnerability to disasters.

According to the UN Humanitarian Appeal for 2009, the world food situation changed dramatically in 2008 as a result of the increase in food prices and diminishing of food stocks.
These conditions have greatly worsened access to food for many populations and have led to a complex set of challenges, especially in Africa. The World Bank estimates that 45 to 50 per cent of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa live below the poverty line making it the poorest region in the world. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports that approximately 33 per cent of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa is undernourished. It is the only region in the world where malnutrition, in many cases a product of food insecurity, is on the rise. Food insecurity in Africa has complex causes, including abject poverty, HIV and Aids, climate change, environmental degradation, conflict, increase in population size and debt.

Lastly, disasters are a humanitarian and a development concern. According to DFID[1] evidence shows that countries of low human development are not only disproportionately affected by disasters, but people’s vulnerabilities to disasters have increased through failed development. Hence, investing in disaster risk reduction and preparedness is both a humanitarian imperative and a human development necessity if we are to progress towards and sustain achievements of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).
[1] DFID (2004), Disaster risk reduction: a development concern