Disaster loss and damage from the perspective of future leaders

About

In 2024, disaster loss and damage encompassed 16,141 deaths, 166.3 million affected people, and $223.8 billion USD from the 373 climate-related natural hazard events which consisted of droughts, extreme temperatures, floods, mass movements, storms and wildfires (CRED, 2025).

The World Meteorological Organisation's latest Atlas of Mortality and Economic Losses (WMO, 2023) reported that the frequency of weather-, climate-, and water-extremes are on the rise globally. These hazards have claimed millions of lives and significantly stalled social and economic progress. As more countries face severe socioeconomic consequences, building resilience to these events is becoming critically important.

From 1970 to 2021, floods were the most common type of weather-, climate-, and water-disaster worldwide (WMO, 2023). However, tropical cyclones caused the most deaths and economic damage. The true financial toll might be far greater, as economic losses were only reported for 37% of these disasters. Furthermore, high-income countries accounted for 60% of the recorded economic losses (WMO, 2023).

Disaster loss and damage, as such, has been one of the most important climate change negotiation discussions encompassing the Cancún Adaptation Framework of COP16; Paris Agreement's Article 8 on 'Loss and Damage' of COP21, Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage of COP19, inclusive of the Santiago Network; Glasgow Climate Pact of COP26; and Loss and Damage Fund for vulnerable countries of COP27 (UNEP, 2022; UNFCCC, 2022).

The disaster loss and damage debate is vital to the UN's Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 aim for "substantial reduction of disaster risk and losses in lives, livelihoods and health" and several Sustainable Development Goals (including 1, 2, 3, 7, 13 and 17).

As a global-local membership network of 900+ experts, practitioners, and researchers in 94 countries, the Avoidable Deaths Network (ADN) is motivated by the desire to reduce avoidable disaster deaths. ADN engages in cutting-edge, evidence-based research, public engagement and capacity-building programmes. Our initiatives focus on preventing human deaths from natural-hazard disasters in low- and middle-income countries, supporting the Sendai Framework's first two global targets, and empowering policymakers, practitioners, and vulnerable communities to make informed decisions that save lives.

This highly topical and timely Special Session organised by the ADN addresses Disaster Loss and Damage from the Perspective of Future Leaders. The session will take place on 10 July 2025 at 11:00 - 12:30 BST/ GMT+1 (UK) and will be chaired by experts in disaster loss and damage, Professor Anil Kumar Gupta (Professor of Policy-Strategies and Capacities, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee) and Mr. Vishal Pathak (Consultant, All India Disaster Mitigation Institute (AIDMI); Regional Coordinator and Case Station Lead, ADN).

This Special Session will bring unique insights as it is organised and delivered by Future Leaders. They are 'individuals who bring change to enrich life standards and communities' abilities to manage risks, crises, disaster and development through social influence' and have skills in 'critical thinking, problem solving, listening, effective communication, adaptability, sense making and learning' (Corsel et al., 2023: 39).

The insights of ADN Future Leaders are especially valuable as they reflect current challenges, emerging approaches, and context-specific knowledge from diverse settings that might otherwise go underrepresented in technical discussions.

Speakers

The webinar will be delivered by a panel of five ADN speakers in addition to our Chairs. They are Mr. Asad Tahir (ADN - Pakistan, University of Leicester), Miss Prarthona Datta (ADN - Canada), Master Arkoneil Ghosh (ADN - India), Mr. Yunes Abou El Wafa (ADN, University College Dublin) and Mr. Eduardo Cardoso (ADN, SAFER-Odisha).

The panel discussion will focus on the challenges and opportunities of traditional and evidence-based methodology to mitigate loss and damage. Also, it will bring everyday stories of climate-affected children, small businesses and farmers' struggle of recurrent loss and damage from natural-hazard related disasters and mitigation measures.

We invite all those interested in deepening their understanding of loss and damage to join us for this exchange of ideas and perspectives by registering on the ADN website.