Governance

The report has been prepared upon request of the General Assembly in its resolution 80/137 on DRR, providing an overview of progress towards the goal, global targets and priorities for action of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030.

The tiny country contributes less than 0.1 percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions—but is experiencing the consequences of climate change firsthand.

This brief examines both the escalating human rights crisis and the binding international legal obligations that apply as climate-driven sea level rise intensifies.

An IRDR-UNDRR webinar examined the 26 August 2026 China-Nepal flash flood, highlighting cascading transboundary risks, monitoring and data-sharing gaps, and calling for a Himalayan Monitoring Centre, FORIN study, and stronger multi-hazard risk assessment.

Following a series of major disasters and inquiries that questioned New Zealand’s capacity to deal with them, the new Emergency Management Act 2026 is the most significant improvement in more than two decades.

This practitioner’s brief synthesises lessons from GIZ’s Global Programme on Human Mobility in the Context of Climate Change and provides recommendations on governance, data, financing, rights-based approaches and cross-regional learning.

This paper calls for a shift from Bridge Management Systems to Bridge Resilience Systems, integrating disaster governance, critical infrastructure, climate risk, ecosystem management and connectivity to protect essential functions during disruption.

This article compares typhoon communication in the Philippines and Vietnam, showing how political structures, corruption, propaganda and media control shape disaster visibility, often prioritising regime preservation over public safety.

Combining Global Fire Atlas records with Afrobarometer surveys of more than 100,000 people in 34 African countries, this study shows that people living close to wildfires are more likely to vote, contact local councillors and attend community meetings.

A decade after Cape Town came within days of running dry, a senior city policy official reflects on how the 'day zero' drought reshaped the way the city collects, shares, and acts on data.

This paper examines institutional heat risk communication in England. Interviews with 29 practitioners revealed strong alert and coordination systems, but uneven public engagement, limited evaluation and capacity constraints that hinder effectiveness.

Given its speed, scale and scope, the Bundibugyo Ebola virus disease that broke out in the DRC in mid-2026 could become a global epidemic. Preventing a fast-spreading outbreak that has already taken over a large geographical region is difficult.

This report identifies key challenges in preparing for future changes to the critical risk landscape, drawing on reports, ‘Survey on Governance of Critical Risks’ and ‘Survey on Governance of Critical Infrastructure Resilience’ carried out in 2022-25.

Climate vulnerability is often associated with cyclones and disappearing coastlines, but major climate risks are also affecting landlocked countries, where climate change is altering glaciers, lakes and rivers that sustain lives and livelihoods.

This study applies regional scoping framework, a risk-to-action chain that follows risk as it moves through a system from information, to decisions, to finance, to action, to impact.

Using a qualitative key informant interviewing design, this study examined how flood risk management (FRM) is implemented in Rize through the perspectives of 51 senior civil ser-vants, appointees, technical experts, and managers involved in FRM

This scoping review maps peer-reviewed evidence on drought adaptation in the SADC region, which exhibits an observed downward trend in precipitation, making it a valuable case to study diverse approaches to managing changing risk.

The Himalayan flood exposed a risk that begins beyond Nepal’s borders – and demands a response that does too.

Bosai is a Japanese concept that encompasses all stages of disaster management. In a country where natural hazards are a frequent threat, understanding bosai is one of the most practical ways for individuals to protect themselves and those around them.

The report assesses current context of sea level rise, key challenges and ongoing efforts by Member States and the UN system to address such challenges. The report builds on the Sep 2024 high-level plenary meeting to address sea level rise threats.

This toolkit examines how extreme weather events fuel mis- and disinformation and provides frameworks for assessing readiness, triaging threats, building partnerships and strengthening information resilience before, during and after disasters.

Japan is facing growing disaster risks while population decline reduces local response capacity. Following failures in delivering relief supplies after Kumamoto earthquake, the article urges stronger public-private partnerships and national coordination.

The report examines pathways to limit and reverse1.5°C overshoot. While limiting warming to 1.5°C remains central to the Paris Agreement, current policies and near-term trajectories say exceeding this threshold is now widely considered unavoidable.

The new mayor wants to invest in coastal resilience, but he will have to decide which areas of the city to protect. New York City has more than 500 miles of coastline, no two miles of the waterfront are quite the same and are vulnerable in different ways.

A deadly Nepal-Tibet border flood highlights how limited cross-border data sharing, restricted access to Tibet and weak early warning systems can hinder disaster preparedness. The article calls for greater regional cooperation on climate and flood risks.

The disaster in Rasuwa has once again exposed the vulnerability of Himalayan communities to climate-driven hazards and highlighted gaps in monitoring and early warning systems.

Climate change has amplified Europe’s heatwaves and increased the severity of the 2026 drought . With these effects expected to intensify, Europe can learn a lot from African leaders – and share resources and knowledge in turn. They have been here before.

Based on 21 NDC 3.0 submissions from ADB developing member countries, with a cutoff date of 14 November 2025, this paper finds encouraging progress in adaptation ambition but uneven implementation readiness.

This report reviews India's growing heat risk, the evolution of Heat Action Plans, financing mechanisms, and emerging governance approaches to strengthen climate resilience and public health protection.

As climate change increases aridity worldwide, the article explores how Rio Conventions and Sendai Framework can support coordinated adaptation through better land and water management, risk monitoring, inclusive governance and resilience-building.

This report provides an independent assessment of the implementation and effectiveness of the New Zealand Government’s national adaptation plan.

Governments are facing increasingly frequent, complex, and costly disaster risks, while the systems used to manage them are fragmented across agencies and jurisdictions, causing states and localities to adopt comprehensive resilience plans.

Adapting to the new hot dry summers is not difficult. Many countries deal with these sorts of extreme conditions ever single year. But it takes planning and investment in basic infrastructure, not just another emergency Cobra meeting.

The National Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction (2025–2030) and Short and Medium Term Action Plan provides a comprehensive, forward-looking framework to strengthen Nigeria’s resilience to disasters.

This paper summarises lessons from major flood events since 2007 using a harmonised framework aligned with Integrated Flood Risk Management (IFRM).

The Island Innovation newsletter of 4 June 2026 referred to "the Falepili Mobility Visa, the world's first climate-linked migration pathway." The text of the 2023 Australia-Tuvalu Falepili Union treaty is clear that the visa offer is different.

A paper published in Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences in April 2026 uses the 2025 California wildfires as a starting point to discuss broader systemic failures in disaster risk reduction (DRR).

A severe heatwave in Libya exposed the country’s weak infrastructure, triggering prolonged power cuts, water shortages and protests. The crisis highlighted how climate risks, poor preparedness and governance failures can amplify public vulnerability.

In the Torres Strait, sea levels are rising twice as fast as the global average. Scientists predict several low-lying islands in the Torres Strait will be uninhabitable by 2050 if global warming continues on its current trajectory.

The economic ramifications of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz are much discussed. But so far, the risk of ecological damage following a long blockade of ships has been overlooked.

Facing severe geological disasters, China is expanding risk management from individual hazard points to entire zones and deploying advanced technologies to minimize casualties and property losses.

Call it plurilateralism or coalition building, climate governance is increasingly carried by an ecosystem of actors convening faster than formal institutions and, at its best, connects expertise across domains that institutions still keep separate.

Researchers argue that their Cooling with Consent framework addresses the fact that not all communities are the same as to which cooling initiatives they will accept and so AI-driven heat adaptation solutions residents' buy-in.

A CMCC study analyses how wildfire risk is governed in Italy, Greece and the German federal state of Land Brandenburg, revealing how the institutions responsible for managing this risk actually work together

Whether the subject is violence against women, mental health, toxicity on our coasts, or perhaps now bird flu, we must ensure the duty of care to audiences keeps pace with the realities being reported.