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Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction 2013
From Shared Risk to Shared Value: the Business Case for Disaster Risk Reduction |
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Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction 2013
From Shared Risk to Shared Value: the Business Case for Disaster Risk Reduction |
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Part I - Chapter 6
Figure 6.1 Losses from cyclonic wind compared with greenhouse gas emissions
low emissions will also face high costs from sea level rise.
Today, a familiar tendency is to assign the causality of all weather-related impacts to climate change. In reality, at least over the next two to three decades, increasing hazard exposure and vulnerability associated with economic and urban development will have a greater influence on disaster risk than climate change (IPCC, 2012
IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). 2012.,Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation., Special Report of Working Groups I and II of the Intergovernemental Panel on Climate Change (Field, C.B., V.Barros, T.F.Stocker, D.Qin, D.J.Dken, K.L.Ebi, M.D. Mastrandrea, K.J. Mach, G.-K. Plattner, S.K. Allen, M. Tignor, and P.M. Midgley (eds.). Cambrid, Cambridge, UK, and New York, NY, USA.,. . UNISDR. 2009.,Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction: Risk and poverty in a changing climate., United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction., Geneva,Switzerland: UNISDR.. . Nicholls, R., Hanson, J., Herweijer, C., Patmore, N., Hallegatte, S., Corfee-Morlot, J., Château, J. and Muir-Wood, R. 2008.,Ranking Port Cities with High Exposure and Vulnerability to Climate Extremes: Exposure Estimates., OECD Environment Working Papers, No.1, OECD Publishing., Paris,France. . IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). 2007.,Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability., IPCC Synthesis Report., Geneva,Switzerland.. . One climate change outcome, which the IPCC has agreed is certain, is increased warming. In regions that may also experience decreased precipitation, warming will increase the likelihood of wild-land fires and agricultural drought, which feed back into climate change.
6.3
Unsustainable risks
Environmental degradation, deforestation and overexploitation of natural resources all result in increased risks to natural capital. The negative impacts of weather-related disasters further erode the natural capital base of nations, reducing their overall wealth and competitiveness.
There is growing interest in quantifying the value of natural capital and the consequences of its loss to national economies. ii The wealth of a country is the sum of produced, human and natural capital. As human capital increases, although total wealth increases, natural capital is likely to be depleted and thus wealth per capita can decrease. The persistence of environmental degradation and natural resource depletion, therefore, is an environmental as well as a social and economic concern. Figure 6.2 highlights countries that are challenged to address environmental degradation.
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