Press release

ARISE India, a private sector alliance for DRR, was launched today on the 4th anniversary of the adoption of the Sendai Framework

Cyclone Idai is the worst extreme weather event so far this year, leaving many dead and over one million people affected. It underlines once more the need for infrastructure which is disaster resilient.

Earthquakes and tsunamis accounted for the majority of the 10,733 lives lost in disasters last year while extreme weather events accounted for most of 61.7 million people affected by natural hazards, according to analysis of 281 events recorded by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) in its EM-DAT (International Disaster Database).

Monday, November 5, is World Tsunami Awareness Day. A review of available data shows that the last twenty years have been the most deadly and costly period for this rare but devastating natural hazard.

90% of the world's earthquakes occur in the Pacific Ring of Fire. It requires special when it comes to disaster risk management, says UNISDR chief Mami Mizutori.

This year's run of disaster events worldwide confirms the long term trend of the last forty years which has seen a doubling in the number of recorded extreme weather events which now regularly account for 90% of disasters caused by natural hazards notably floods, storms, drought, landslides and wildfires.

“We owe it to those who have lost their lives in Greece and elsewhere to step up efforts on wildfire suppression and prevention," says UNISDR head, Mami Mizutori.

The lessons learned from this week's floods and landslides in Japan and other similar events need to be applied if we are to succeed in reducing loss of life and the numbers of people affected by disasters.

The Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction closed today with the adoption of the Ulaanbataar Declaration, agreement on a two year plan of action and the news that Australia will host the next Conference in 2020.

PRESS RELEASE: The Prime Minister of Mongolia, Khurelsukh Ukhnaa, urged participants at the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction to make progress on reducing disaster losses in the world's most disaster-prone region in his keynote address on the opening day.