Amid More Frequent, Intense Disasters, International Community Must Honour Climate Risk Management Accords, Secretary-General Tells Istanbul Summit

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks at the High-Level Round Table on Natural Disasters and Climate Change at the World Humanitarian Summit, in Istanbul today:

Natural disasters are having a major impact around the world.  Over the past two decades, an average of 218 million people every year have been affected by natural disasters, leading to an economic impact of some $250 to 300 billion per year.

Despite some improvements in building resilience in recent years, we know that the impact of climate change, urbanization and other factors will increase the frequency and intensity of disasters.

The current El Niño demonstrates the challenges we face.  This weather phenomenon — which was foreseen — is already affecting 60 million people with droughts and flooding.

Last January, I myself witnessed the effects of El Niño on farmers in Ethiopia, and the Deputy Secretary-General saw them in Viet Nam three weeks ago.  We saw what a difference greater investment in preparedness and prevention can make.

I have appointed the Honourable Mary Robinson, the former President of Ireland, and Ambassador Macharia Kamau of Kenya as my Envoys to address El Niño.

Reducing disaster risk dominated last year’s political achievements: the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.  We must now honour these agreements and deliver on their promises.  That is the first core commitment for this round table.

We can reduce risks, but we can never eliminate them.  Unfortunately, natural disasters will continue to happen, as we have seen recently in the devastating earthquakes in Nepal and Ecuador.  We must prepare for them much more effectively, so we can respond as quickly as possible.  These are the second and third core commitments.

We must increase investment in community resilience, with the full participation of women, young people, and other groups in society.  This is the fourth commitment.  And the fifth and final commitment is to follow the rule: as local as possible; as international as needed.  Local action must be driven by local needs, and complemented by regional and international support.

I look forward to your commitments, so that this Summit marks the beginning of a major change in the global management of disaster risks and crises.

For its part, the United Nations commits to making all its plans and programmes risk informed, and to building the resilience of communities that are most vulnerable.