News and announcements

About 90% of total disaster losses across the U.S. have repeatedly occurred in ZIP codes that contain less than 20% of the population. But federally subsidized relief and recovery programmes have prompted critics to question the value of spending tens of billions of dollars in tax money, which encourages further development in these regions and endangers lives.

Insurance and reinsurance broker Aon is launching a new centre that will focus on weather and climate risk transfer innovation, as the company looks to help clients evaluate the potential impact of climate risk and weather on their operations, and to design suitable comprehensive risk financing and transfer strategies to improve their resilience.

UNDP is launching a project to help vulnerable Indonesian farmers adapt to climate change by providing them with climate-smart agriculture practices and technologies. The ambition is to mainstream climate information into agricultural planning and operations, and to catalyze public and private sector investments in the value chain, crucial to transformation of the sector.

NOAA’s Central Pacific Hurricane Center today announced there is an 80% chance of near or above-normal tropical cyclone activity during the central Pacific hurricane season this year. The Central Pacific Hurricane Center continuously monitors weather conditions, employing a network of satellites, sensors, and aircraft reconnaissance missions.

The NOAA Climate Prediction Center is forecasting a 75% chance that the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season will be near or above normal. This prediction was facilitated by NOAA’s suite of sophisticated technologies, which enable decision makers and the general public to take action before, during, and after hurricanes.

An experimental Ebola vaccine is being administered for the first time to contain an outbreak in the DRC. No vaccine has yet been licensed to control the Ebola virus, but the WHO has decided to vaccinate about 600 people on a compassionate basis and following approval from Congolese authorities.

As rising seas threaten parts of the Costa Rica's eastern coast, many worry that the tourists who generate numerous jobs in the area will go elsewhere. Scientists say parts of Costa Rica's coast have lost at least 20 metres of beach in the past 15 years and extreme events like hurricanes are likely to worsen the impact on many coastal communities.

New research warns that by the late 21st century, if atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations reach worst-case scenario projections, Floridians could experience summer heatwaves three times more frequently, and each heatwave could last six times longer and be much hotter than at present.