Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Insurance Australia Group says it will pay more for catastrophe insurance cover this financial year and will have insurance protection of nearly $5 billion in 2012, including coverage for earthquakes and floods...

There will be education for pet owners to be prepared with crates, as in the US when Hurricane Katrina hit, a number of people died because they refused to leave their pets behind when authorities tried to move them, reports ABC...

Angelika Planitz, head of the UN's regional office for the International Strategy for Disaster Risk Management, is speaking at ABC Radio Australia on the occasion of the International Day for Disaster Reduction...

A north Queensland RSPCA inspector says Australia is behind the United States when it comes to disaster management planning for large animals, mainly horses and cattle, in flood, fire and cyclone events...

Samoa's tourism industry says it is taking steps to protect itself, and especially its beach-based attractions which are vulnerable to changing sea levels and tsunami, against the negative effects of climate change and 'natural' disasters...

Townsville, located in the north of Queensland is being used as a model city to help coastal councils across the state, plan for the impacts of climate change, reports ABC. The project is being managed by the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility...

'I would say in general the world is not at all well prepared for these [extreme weather] events which are becoming far more serious and far more frequent' said Dr Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in an interview with ABC's environment reporter Sarah Clarke...

Janak Rogers of Radio Australia interviews Apurva Sanghi, senior World Bank economist at the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction & Recovery and lead author of the report 'Natural Hazards, UnNatural Disasters', on what it all means for the Pacific...